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Former President Trump could be facing his third indictment after he said earlier this month that the Justice Department had notified him that he was a target in their Jan. 6 probe. Some Republicans see the mounting legal problems as only aiding Trump.
As our Alex Bolton reports this morning, some Republican senators are convinced that Trump’s legal controversies will serve to help the former president, not hinder him, as Trump vies for a third GOP presidential nomination.
So far, Trump has been indicted in a probe overseen by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over an alleged hush money scheme, in addition to a separate Justice Department probe looking into his handling of classified documents that were found at Mar-a-Lago.
The former president is now facing a possible second federal indictment in an investigation being conducted by the Justice Department revolving around the events of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Trump could also face charges around a separate probe overseen by Fulton County District Attorney Fanni Willis around efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
“The things that one would have thought were disqualifying can be enhancing, can be improving your standing,” one GOP senator, who also requested anonymity to speak candidly, told Alex.
Trump has used his compounding legal controversies as a fundraising opportunity. At the same time, polls have shown the difficulty other 2024 contenders have experienced in trying to close the gap between Trump and the rest of the field.
The indictments also come at a particularly bad time for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose campaign has gone through several rounds of staff layoffs and whom Republican strategists have said have made some early missteps in his campaign. | Not_Explicit |
Kennedy, who is running against President Joe Biden in 2024, met with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in New York on Tuesday, during which he explained his controversial comments and touted his efforts to fight antisemitism and champion Israel.
"I understand the pain of antisemitism to those people, and I do not want to contribute to that vein," he said. "And I don't want people who have suffered in that way and whose lives have been touched by suffering to suspect that I, in some way, approve or endorse their suffering, and that's why it hurts me."
Boteach asked Kennedy if he realized why his comments about Jews being more resistant to COVID-19 were harmful, drawing a parallel with accusations against Jewish people during the Black Death during the Middle Ages.
"Absolutely," Kennedy said, adding that he wouldn't have talked about the issue if it was a public event.
"I was describing an article that I had nothing to do with. It was an NIH-funded article that was published in 2021 and one of the 10 top high gravitas journals, and it was done by the Cleveland Clinic. ... It's not something that I would have talked about at a public event because I'm aware of the history of blood libels," he continued. "And how that kind of information is used by malicious people — to just drum up hatred of Jews. I talked about it at an event that I was told was Chatham House rules."
He added that the context was a larger discussion on ethnic bioweapons and that Jewish people wouldn't have had a part in its production, as most gain-of-function research was carried out in China.
The discussion then moved to Israel and the two's wider concerns about the direction of the Democratic Party in turning against Israel. Kennedy pledged to be a strongly pro-Israel president, saying how he had grown up deeply admiring the Middle Eastern nation and wants to fully rehabilitate the state's image in the minds of Americans.
"A major part of my campaign ... will be explaining to the American people why that [anti-Israel] view is wrong," Kennedy said.
Kennedy's comments reflect his previous defenses over his comments on COVID-19, during which he suggested that Ashkenazi Jews, along with Chinese people, appeared to be less affected than some other races.
Earlier this month, he tweeted, "I have never, ever suggested that the COVID-19 virus was targeted to spare Jews." Instead, he said he was pointing out that COVID-19 served as "proof of concept for ethnically targeted bioweapons" because of its disproportionate effect on certain races and ethnicities. | Not_Explicit |
Remember Onavo? The Israeli mobile market intelligence company that Meta (aka Facebook) bought back in 2013 and used to power a free VPN/data management app which claimed to users it would help protect their privacy but did the opposite by sharing usage data with Facebook for the latter’s own business intelligence purposes? The wheeze helped the tech giant figure out which rival apps were popular — feeding its acquisition strategy and enabling it to sew up its grip on the social web. (See, for e.g., Facebook’s 2014 purchase of WhatsApp.)
Meta hasn’t faced much legal blowback for using the misleading cover of a freebie VPN app that claimed it would keep people’s data “safe” to spy on users’ digital activity for its own commercial ends. But Australia’s consumer watchdog has now managed to extract an AUS$20 million (~$13.5M) total penalty payment from two Meta-owned companies involved in the saga: Facebook Israel and Onavo Inc.
The Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) sued Meta over its use of Onavo back in December 2020. Today it said a federal court has ordered the two subsidiaries to each pay AUS$10M for engaging in conduct liable to mislead in breach of the Australian Consumer Law.
The subsidiaries, which were the developers and suppliers of the Onavo Protect VPN app, were found to be responsible for misleading descriptions of the app displayed in Google and Apple App Store listings.
The watchdog also found that the “Onavo Protect” VPN app was installed more than 270,000 times by Australian users between February 2016 and October 2017. Facebook shuttered the service in May 2019.
“In Google and Apple App Store listings, Onavo Protect was promoted as a product that would keep users’ data protected and safe, for example with language such as ‘Use a free, fast and secure VPN to protect personal information‘ and ‘Helps Keep You and Your Data Safe‘,” it wrote in a press release. “In fact, Onavo and Facebook Israel shared the personal activity data from users collected by the app in anonymised and aggregated form with parent company Meta (then known as Facebook Inc) for commercial benefit.”
“We took this case knowing that many consumers are concerned about how their data is captured, stored and used by digital platforms. We believe Australian consumers should be able to make an informed choice about what happens to their data based on clear information that is not misleading,” ACCC chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, added in a statement.
“In the case of the Onavo Protect app, we were concerned that consumers seeking to protect their privacy through a virtual private network were not clearly told that in downloading and using this app they were actually facilitating the use of their data for Meta’s commercial benefit.”
The ACCC’s original suit also targeted Meta, as the parent company of Facebook Israel and Onavo. However the watchdog said the case against Meta was dismissed by the Court after settlement negotiations between it and the remaining parties “based on information about Meta’s role in the conduct”.
Meta was contacted for comment on the penalty. At the time of writing it had not responded. | Not_Explicit |
1 dead, cathedral damaged in latest Russian strike on southern Ukraine
The latest Russian attack on Odesa, Ukraine left at least one person dead, 22 others injured and a historic Orthodox cathedral severely damaged.
Regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said Sunday that four children were among the injured, adding that other residents of the southern Ukrainian city were trapped in their apartments. Six residential buildings, including apartment buildings, were also destroyed in the latest attack, which left much of the city covered in rubble and damaged the power lines, Kiper added.
The strike on the Black Sea port city, which comes days after Russia pulled out of the grain export deal with Kyiv, is the latest in a series of attacks this past week that caused severe damage to its infrastructure.
The damage to the historical cathedral, meanwhile, marks a severe blow to the community of Odesa. The Transfiguration Cathedral is one of the most important and largest in Odesa. Volunteers tried to salvage as many church artifacts as they could after the fires were extinguished. Paintings of the saints remained largely intact.
Archdeacon Andrii Palchuk said the cathedral took a direct hit from a Russian missile., adding that two people inside the structure at the time of the attack were wounded.
“The destruction is enormous, half of the cathedral is now roofless,” he said, later saying through tears, “But with God’s help, we will restore it.”
Russia’s defense ministry took credit for the attacks and said in a statement the strikes were carried out with sea- and air-based long-range high-precision weapons. In a later statement, the ministry denied that the attacks struck the cathedral and said its destruction was likely a result of “the fall of a Ukrainian anti-aircraft guided missile.”
Russia’s defense ministry said it attacked places in Odesa, “where terrorist acts against the Russian Federation were being prepared.” It also claimed in the initial statement there were “foreign mercenaries” at the targeted sites.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, to which the cathedral belongs, has been accused of maintaining links to Russia. Ukrainian security agencies have raided some holy sites and discovered some Russian leaflets and passports, which they claim to be evidence of a link to Russia.
Leaders have insisted, however, that the church is loyal to Ukraine and have denounced the Russian invasion from the start.
– The Associated Press contributed.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Not_Explicit |
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Black people learned beneficial skills as slaves.
- "They're probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life," DeSantis said at a press conference.
- Florida approved a new African-American studies curriculum that teaches about the "personal benefit" of slavery.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said Black people benefitted from some of the skills they learned in slavery — and students in the state will soon learn about that "personal benefit" in Florida's education curriculum.
Florida's Department of Education on Wednesday approved a new curriculum for the state's African-American Studies program in public schools which instructs students on the personal benefit of slavery to Black people.
"They're probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life," DeSantis said at a press conference on Friday.
—Kit Maher (@KitMaherCNN) July 22, 2023
The state's curriculum standards for the African-American Studies course say students will learn "how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."
DeSantis noted at the press conference that he did not play a role in the changes to Florida's curriculum, but also defended the curriculum change as a purely academic decision by the state Department of Education.
"If you have any questions about it just ask the Department of Education. But I mean these were scholars that put this together," DeSantis said. "This is not anything that was done politically."
The curriculum change follows the "Stop WOKE Act," which DeSantis signed into law in 2022 and aimed to ban the teaching of anything that made students in public schools feel "shamed because of their race."
The law was intended to push back against the supposed teaching of critical race theory – examining how America's history of racism and discrimination continues to impact the country today — in public schools. | Not_Explicit |
Plastic waste is a problem on our beaches. Hence, it is largely removed in a coordinated manner within a few weeks. However, it can litter other coasts of the world for many months to years due to unregulated waste disposal. Often the garbage on the beach is simply burned and a special form of plastic waste is created: so-called plastiglomerate. This "rock" is made up of natural components, such as coral fragments, held together by the melted and reconsolidated plastic. A new study by a German-Indonesian research team at Kiel University has now demonstrated, using field samples from Indonesia, that such rocks pose an increased environmental risk to coastal ecosystems such as seagrass beds, mangroves or coral reefs. The melted plastic decomposes more quickly into microplastics and is also contaminated with organic pollutants. The researchers recently published the findings in the journal Scientific Reports.
"Until now, there have been rather basic studies describing the formation of plastiglomerates. With our results, we have shown for the first time how plastiglomerate differs from other plastic waste and can make better statements about its environmental impact," says first author Dr Amanda Utami, who works as a scientist at Indonesia's largest science organization (BRIN, Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional) and came to Kiel on a three-month fellowship. The research work was made possible by funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and cooperation between BRIN and scientists in the Kiel Marine Science (KMS) priority research area at Kiel University.
New insights through international cooperation
If plastic waste is burnt directly on the beach, this melting and burning process produces the plastiglomerate "rock," in whose plastic matrix the carbon chains are degraded. This chemically degraded plastic weathers more rapidly into microplastics through exposure to wind, waves and sediment grains on the beach. The incomplete combustion process releases new pollutants from the plastic that first settle on the plastic and are then released into the environment. These contaminants often have higher ecotoxicological relevance than the parent plastic, are potentially bioavailable, and thus can be introduced and enriched in the food chain.
Scientist Utami collected a total of 25 field samples from beaches on Panjang Island on the western side of the Indonesian island of Java and analyzed them in the laboratory together with researchers from Kiel University. One of them is Dr Lars Reuning, Utami's scientific host in Kiel and second author of the study: "Our analyses show that Plastiglomerates are contaminated with organic pollutants. Even though further results on bioaccumulation are still pending, they can be classified as potentially carcinogenic to humans." Reuning is a member of the Paleontology Research Group at the Institute of Geosciences at Kiel University. The working group, led by Professor Miriam Pfeiffer, is also involved in the German Research Foundation's (DFG) Earth Science Priority Program 2299 "Tropical Climate Variability and Coral Reefs."
Chemical investigations of pollutants in the Kiel laboratory
The researchers first differentiated the plastiglomerate samples according to optical criteria into less strongly as well as more strongly melted or burned samples and extracted volatile pollutants with the help of solvents. These analyses, which were carried out in Professor Lorenz Schwark's Organic Geochemistry Group at the Institute of Geosciences, revealed, for example, contamination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and phthalates, which are used as plasticizers for plastics. Experts consider both classes of substances to have a high potential for causing cancer.
The research team also used physicochemical methods and comparison with databases to characterize the nature of polymers such as polypropylene (PP) or polyethylene (PE) or their mixtures. They conducted measurements using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) in the working group of Professor Gernot Friedrichs at the Institute of Physical Chemistry at Kiel University to investigate the degree of weathering. Outcome: Areas that were already visibly more exposed to the burning process also showed a greater degree of weathering and oxidation.
Numerous effects on coastal ecosystems possible
"To better assess environmental damage, we are currently researching the exact composition of the organic pollutants associated with the plastic, such as organophosphorus compounds," says geochemist Schwark. Also of interest is the tendency of the plastiglomerates to decay easily. "Normally, photo-oxidation by UV light affects the top layer of plastics. But thermo-oxidation by burning the plastic waste significantly alters the internal structures of the material as well," says geoscientist Reuning.
In the future, numerous coastal ecosystems of tropical waters off Indonesia as well as worldwide will be affected by Plastiglomerates. Studies already show that organic pollutants are also transferred to corals or other marine organisms and can thus have a negative impact on ocean health. Further studies are therefore also looking at other ecosystems such as seagrass beds, mangroves or organisms living in the sediment.
"Compared to normal plastic waste, the unique properties of Plastiglomerates require a specific form of coastal management," Utami sums up. "If trash from urban areas on tropical beaches were better disposed of and managed, a serious problem could be prevented."
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Carl Court/AP
toggle caption
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, center, and newly elected Conservative MP Steve Tuckwell, center right, speak at the Rumbling Tum cafe in Uxbridge, after Tuckwell won the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election, west London, Friday July 21, 2023.
Carl Court/AP
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, center, and newly elected Conservative MP Steve Tuckwell, center right, speak at the Rumbling Tum cafe in Uxbridge, after Tuckwell won the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election, west London, Friday July 21, 2023.
Carl Court/AP
LONDON — Britain's governing Conservative Party suffered two thumping defeats Friday in a trio of special elections but avoided a drubbing after holding onto former premier Boris Johnson's seat in suburban London.
Though the main opposition Labour Party and the smaller centrist Liberal Democrats overturned massive Conservative majorities to win a seat apiece, the Conservatives found some crumbs of comfort in their narrow success in Uxbridge and South Ruislip in west London.
Still, the results of Thursday's elections, if replicated at a likely general election next year, would certainly see Labour emerge as the biggest single party, possibly with a sizable overall majority. Despite holding onto Johnson's former seat by just 495 votes, the three election results show the Conservatives losing ground across a broad range of voters: suburban Londoners, small-town-dwellers in the north of England and rural residents in the southwest.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak headed straight off to the scene of his party's sole electoral success and noted that governments often find midterm elections difficult.
"The message I take away is that we've got to double down, stick to our plan and deliver for people," he said in a cafe in Ruislip.
Labour's leader Keir Starmer is also heading off to Selby and Ainsty in northern England, where 25-year-old candidate Keir Mather managed to secure the party's second largest swing at a special election since 1945.
"This is a historic result that shows that people are looking at Labour and seeing a changed party that is focused entirely on the priorities of working people with an ambitious, practical plan to deliver," Starmer said after the result was announced.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats took Somerton and Frome in southwest England on a similarly large swing away from the Conservatives.
"The people of Somerton and Frome have spoken for the rest of the country who are fed up with Rishi Sunak's out-of-touch Conservative government," Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said.
What is clear about those two elections was that voters from both opposition parties clearly backed the party most likely to defeat the Conservative candidate. Facing this level of tactical voting, the defeats will likely leave many Conservative lawmakers rattled ahead of the likely national vote next year.
The defeats don't mean a change of government, since the Conservatives still have a chunky majority in the House of Commons.
For months, opinion polls have been giving Labour a double-digit lead — sometimes up to 20% — nationwide over the Conservatives, who have been in power since 2010.
The party has been plagued by the fallout from the tumultuous terms of Johnson and his successor as prime minister, Liz Truss, who quit within weeks after her plan for unfunded tax cuts alarmed financial markets, which accentuated a a cost-of-living crisis and saw mortgage costs soar.
Johnson, who stood down as premier last September, quit Parliament last month after being accused of misleading the House of Commons over statements he made regarding the lockdown breaches. The former lawmaker in Selby, an ally of Johnson's, followed him out the door while the member of parliament in Somerton and Frome resigned amid sex and drugs allegations.
In light of those bruising defeats, there is speculation that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has to call a general election by January 2025, could look to shake up his government with a Cabinet shuffle as early as Friday.
While Sunak mulls his options, much of the spotlight will turn on Labour leader Starmer, who has been cautious in laying out his plans for government.
The party's failure to secure victory in Johnson's former seat will likely some concern over London Mayor Sadiq Khan's plan to expand an anti-pollution zone to all outer boroughs of the capital, a move that will see many older cars and diesel vehicles face a daily emissions charge. | Not_Explicit |
Reliance Industries Q1 Results Review - O2C Margin Impacted Overall Performance : Yes Securities
RIL’s capex over FY24-25E is expected to remain elevated given the ongoing investment in various segments.
BQ Prime’s special research section collates quality and in-depth equity and economy research reports from across India’s top brokerages, asset managers and research agencies. These reports offer BQ Prime’s subscribers an opportunity to expand their understanding of companies, sectors and the economy.
Yes Securities Report
Reliance Industries Ltd. reported revenue of Rs 2,075.5 billion (-5% YoY; -2% QoQ) which was below our and street estimates, with operating profit of Rs 380.9 billion (+1% YoY; -1% QoQ).
Ebitda growth was impacted by oil-to-chemical margins (normalisation from higher base of last year), offset by strong performance from other segments.
Jio Platforms Ltd. continued subscriber additions and rollout of 5G. Retail segment margin growth was led by grocery and fashion and lifestyle consumption.
RIL’s capex over FY24-25E is expected to remain elevated given the ongoing investment in various segments. Production from KGD6 in coming months to reach 30 metric million standard cubic metre per day.
We continue to maintain 'Add' rating with target price of Rs 2,873/share.
Click on the attachment to read the full report:
DISCLAIMER
This report is authored by an external party. BQ Prime does not vouch for the accuracy of its contents nor is responsible for them in any way. The contents of this section do not constitute investment advice. For that you must always consult an expert based on your individual needs. The views expressed in the report are that of the author entity and do not represent the views of BQ Prime.
Users have no license to copy, modify, or distribute the content without permission of the Original Owner. | Not_Explicit |
Abbott: Operation Lone Star has seized more than 422 million lethal doses of fentanyl so far
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Friday said his administration has seized more than 422 million lethal does of fentanyl so far under it’s Operation Lone Star.
In a statement from his office, Abbott claimed the program, which began in 2021, has resulted in “394,200 illegal immigrant apprehensions” and “31,300 criminal arrests.”
“Operation Lone Star continues to fill the dangerous gaps created by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border,” the statement reads. “Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to President Joe Biden’s open border policies.”
The governor’s office also touted other initiatives the administration has put in place to address border security, including busing migrants to sanctuary cities — like New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. — and placing floating barriers along the Rio Grande to deter migrants from crossing into Texas, which has recently come under intense scrutiny from Mexico and others.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday sent a letter to Abbott and interim Texas Attorney General Angela Colmenero (R) claiming the buoys violate a number of federal laws. The state was given a three-day deadline to enter negotiations to remove them or face legal action.
“The State of Texas’s actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government’s ability to carry out its official duties,” wrote Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim and United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas Jaime Esparza in the letter, which was obtained by The Hill.
The DOJ is also looking into reports of mistreatment of migrants including refusal to provide them water and pushing them back into the Rio Grande Wednesday.
Abbott, in a Twitter thread included in the statement, responded to the threat, accusing President Biden of causing “the humanitarian crisis” at the southern border.
“Texas has the sovereign authority to defend our border, under the U.S. Constitution and the Texas Constitution,” he tweeted. We have sent the Biden Administration numerous letters detailing our authority, including the one I hand-delivered to President Biden earlier this year.”
“We will continue to deploy every strategy to protect Texas and Americans — and the migrants risking their lives,” Abbott added. “We will see you in court, Mr. President.”
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Not_Explicit |
AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Canada knows it can overcome an opening-game draw at the Women's World Cup because it won gold at the Tokyo Olympics when it bounced back from a first game draw against Japan.
Now Canada must rebound again following a scoreless draw against Nigeria in its opening World Cup game. The Canadians face Ireland, which is on debut in the tournament, on Wednesday in the Western Australia capital of Perth in an important Group B match.
Canada coach Bev Priestman likened her team's appearance to the Tokyo team.
“This is tournament football and if I go back to the Olympic games that we won, we started it with a draw, so you’ve got to move on very quickly,” she said.
Captain Christine Sinclair, at 40 among the oldest players at the World Cup, uncharacteristically missed a penalty in the 50th minute against the Nigerians. Sinclair is the top international scorer of all time, men or women, with 190 career goals.
“Of course the team and I are devastated we didn’t get three points. But at the end of the day, we got one (point) and we took two from another team,” Priestman said.
The Canadians have seen penalty heartbreak before.
At the 2019 World Cup in France, Janine Beckie’s attempt was stopped by Sweden goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl in the round of 16. The Swedes went on to win 1-0.
The game against Ireland is crucial for the Canadians to advance.
Australia, which is playing without injured star Sam Kerr, leads the group after a 1-0 victory over Ireland in Sydney. Steph Cately scored on a penalty in the 52nd minute that secured Australia’s win in front of a record crowd.
With the loss, Ireland tumbled to the bottom of the group. But coach Vera Pauw was encouraged with her team's play and believes the Irish can hang with anybody.
“The next one is against Canada, the Olympic champion,” Pauw said. “We do not fear anyone and these players adapt so quickly.”
SPAIN-ZAMBIA
Spain continued its recent roll by extending its streak to six consecutive victories with an easy 3-0 win over Costa Rica in its opening Group C match. Now a spot in the knockout rounds is within reach in a Wednesday game against Zambia in Auckland.
Spain looked sensational in its opening match by pouncing for three goals in the first 30 minutes, and the Zambia victory could have been more lopsided. La Roja had 46 shots, with 12 attempts on goal.
Now a win over Zambia — and just a draw in Japan's game against Costa Rica — would put Spain in the round of 16 with a game to spare.
“Our top objective is to win the game, to have six points, which would almost guarantee our progression to the next round," coach Jorge Vilda said. "Whether we score one, two or three goals, it is more important that we score more goals than the opponents to win the game. And if we can have that advantage before playing our final group match, that would be great.”
Spain has not conceded a goal in its last five matches.
Zambia needs to step up its defensive play to avoid early elimination. The Copper Queens have given up at least three goals in each of its last four international matches, and a loss to Spain would seal their fate with a game to go in group play.
Adding to Zambia's issues: the team is down to its third goaltender through one game of the tournament.
JAPAN-COSTA RICA
Japan can potentially advance to the knockout stage of the Women's World Cup with a game to spare in its Wednesday match against Costa Rica in Dunedin, New Zealand.
A 5-0 win over Zambia in its opening match has put Japan in control of its own fate. The Nadeshiko have advanced to the knockout round the last three World Cups — and won the tournament in 2011 — and a victory over Costa Rica coupled with anything but a Spain loss to Zambia in the other Group C game would make it four straight.
Spain already rolled to a 3-0 win over Costa Rica in the first set of group games, but Japan coach Futoshi Ikeda has cautioned his squad against underestimating their next opponent.
“We’re getting used to the World Cup. I think we can bring out more, but we don’t want to be too complacent where (Costa Rica) can hit us where we’re not looking," Ikeda said. "I think they are a very good defensive team. They have the power to do a lot of plays, so we need to pay attention to various things when we’re planning our side of things.”
Japan has won four of its last five matches, beating both Australia and Canada along the way, and Costa Rica has won only won one of its past 12 matches. Japan is feeling a lot more confident headed into its second game than it was in the opener — despite the ease in which the Nadeshiko got past Zambia.
“The first match was tough. We did it as a team. It was wonderful," forward Minami Tanaka said. “Compared to the first match, we’re less nervous. I think we can play better, that’s what I believe. And personally, I’m happy we got the points, but I want to be more relaxed.”
Costa Rica, playing in its second Women's World Cup, understands it can be eliminated by Japan. Las Ticas has never won a game on this stage, and the loss to Spain could have been even worse if not for 10 saves from goalkeeper Daniela Solera against Spain.
Costa Rica has nine losses, two draws and one win in its last 12 matches.
“I believe the team is filled with lots of hope, despite not having won the first match. We know we have possibilities to make it to the second round, so this had been the main goal. And personally, I feel good," midfielder Raquel “Rocky” Rodriguez said. "The Japanese team, their quality speaks (for) itself. It is not an easy team. We know their players are very smart, very technical, very precise, very faithful to the style of (play) they present.”
___
AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | Not_Explicit |
The Tories could be locked out of power for a generation if supporters of other parties vote tactically at the next general election, the Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, says on Sunday, after his party chalked up another stunning West Country byelection victory.
A massive 29% swing to the Lib Dems saw Sarah Dyke take the Somerton and Frome seat, overturning a Conservative majority of more than 19,200. Davey’s party now has a comfortable 11,000 majority of its own, the largest it has ever had over the Tories in the constituency.
In June last year the Lib Dems won Tiverton and Honiton from the Tories, overturning a 24,000 Conservative majority as Boris Johnson’s reputation reached its nadir.
Tactical voting clearly played a large part in the latest victory, with Labour’s share of the vote dropping sharply to just 2.6% compared with almost 13% at the general election in 2019, putting the party way back in fifth place.
The Lib Dems were themselves squeezed in the other two byelections held on Thursday: in Selby and Ainsty in North Yorkshire, where Davey’s party won only 3.3% of the vote compared with 8.6% in 2019, and in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, where it won only 1.7%, down from 6.3% in 2019.
As Davey hailed his party’s recovery in its traditionally strong territory of the south-west, he told the Observer that there was now a clear opportunity to remove the Tories from office at the next election and keep them out for the foreseeable future, if tactical voting occurred across the West Country and more widely.
“It is no secret that some Labour and Green party voters lent us their votes in Somerset and we are very grateful for their support,” he said. “In many seats across the south-west, voters at the next election will be faced with a similar choice between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.
“My message to all voters who want to get rid of this out-of-touch Conservative government is clear: if the Liberal Democrats can win back our heartlands in the West Country, it could lock the Conservatives out of power for a generation.”
The Lib Dems, who suffered a near wipeout at Westminster after forming a coalition government with the Tories in 2010, are now rebuilding at national and local government levels.
Having returned only eight MPs to Westminster in 2015, they are now up to 15 after their victory in Somerton and Frome and have their eyes on 15 other Tory-held seats in the West Country alone, where the Conservative majorities are lower than in Somerton and Frome. They now run eight councils in the West Country, up from two in 2016.
Naomi Smith, chief executive of Best for Britain, which campaigns for better democracy and favours parties working together to remove the Conservatives, said her organisation would be providing guidance to voters ahead of the next election.
“In the absence of opposition parties standing aside for one another to defeat this failing government, progressive voters have little choice but to make tactical decisions come polling day,” she said.
“But voters can’t take for granted who the main challenger to the Tories is, so Best for Britain will provide constituency-level guidance. For as long as we have an arcane first-past-the-post system that structurally favours the right, such tactics will be necessary.”
Neal Lawson, the director of Compass, a centre-left pressure group, who is facing possible dismissal from the Labour party for encouraging people to vote tactically, said it had gained 250 members since his argument with Labour came to light last month, suggesting support for his argument. He added: “To translate big by election wins into a more widespread general election and deep political victory means Labour and the Lib Dems, and also the Greens, systematically squeezing the Tory vote and building an ideas agenda for lasting change.” | Not_Explicit |
Britain’s leaders have been warned against a “politically suicidal” lurch away from their green pledges as concerns grow that both major parties may dilute their plans to combat the climate crisis in the wake of a shock byelection result.
Senior figures from business, the scientific community and across the political divide warned that any watering down of climate policies would be deeply unpopular with voters, set back the international fight to reach net zero and damage Britain’s green reputation.
There are fears that both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will loosen their support for such policies after the Conservatives’ surprise win in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip byelection on Thursday. The Tories narrowly won the seat, by just 495 votes, with a campaign that capitalised on opposition to plans by London’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan to extend the ultra low emission zone (Ulez).
Sunak is already being urged by the right of the party and some of his own cabinet to rethink his commitment to green policies in the light of the Uxbridge result. Meanwhile, a senior Labour MP warned that Starmer risked “allowing the Tories to edit the next Labour manifesto” over climate change. The Labour leader had said the Uxbridge result showed the party must not adopt policies that could be featured on Tory election leaflets.
There is a concerted effort this weekend to ensure that the political unity over Britain’s net zero aims remains in place. Alok Sharma, a former Tory cabinet minister and president of Cop26, said it was vital that all parties maintained the political consensus on pursuing net zero.
“We have built up a broad political consensus in the UK on pursuit of net zero policies which are good for the economy, jobs, exports and the environment. Businesses support this agenda because they can see the economic benefits, he told the Observer. “And the independent Office for Budget Responsibility has noted that unmitigated climate change would ultimately have catastrophic economic and fiscal consequences for the UK.
“Concerns about the environment and climate change also consistently rank among the top issues of importance for voters. Given the economic, environmental and electoral case for climate action, it would be self-defeating for any political party to seek to break the political consensus on this vital agenda,” Sharma warned.
Zac Goldsmith, the former minister who quit the government over what he described as Sunak’s lack of interest in the environment, said that any party rethinking its commitment to the climate would be punished. “Byelection results can be interpreted in countless ways, and it is the nature of politicians and political commentators to wedge their own prejudices into the outcomes,” he told the Observer. “But to use these recent results to advocate abandonment of the UK’s previous environmental leadership is cynical and idiotic.
“It would also be politically suicidal, given the very deep and wide support for action on the environment that exists right across the electorate. And it is immoral, given that both government and opposition acknowledge the gravity of the crisis we face.
“So it’s hard to believe there really are people at the top of either of the main parties calling for abandonment of green policies, but if there are, I can only hope they are hammered by the electorate when the time comes,” said Goldsmith, who had been minister for the international environment and climate before he stepped down from the Foreign Office.
Professor Nicholas Stern, who led a seminal 2006 review on the economics of climate change, also issued a plea for leadership on the climate. “Air pollution kills tens of thousands in the UK each year – far more than deaths in road traffic accidents – and millions around the world,” he said.
“Inaction is not a sane option for us, our children and grandchildren. Second, the costs of investments in the transition away from fossil fuels are significantly increased by policy risk due to politicians chopping and changing their views and actions.
“Third, the investment costs of the transition need to be distributed fairly. And fourth, the UK’s reputation in the world depends on its leadership on these issues. Our standing has already been damaged by the loss of focus since we hosted the United Nations climate change summit in Glasgow in 2021.”
The latest Opinium poll for the Observer highlights the perilous state the Tories are in as MPs headed to their constituencies for Westminster’s summer recess. Labour has a 17-point lead. The party retains a 42% share of the vote, with the Tories on just 25%.
Sunak’s team are desperately searching for ways to reverse the party’s fortunes. As well as calls to back away from green measures, the prime minister is also said to be looking at a campaign that would vow to “protect” voters from Labour policies. Sunak’s government already appears to have watered down and delayed an end to the effective ban on more onshore wind farms put in place by David Cameron.
Nathan Bennett, head of strategic communications at RenewableUK, the renewable energy trade association, said that now was precisely the wrong time to be “watering down ambition” and for false arguments to be developing about the costs of greening the economy. “I am concerned about a false narrative emerging that green policies are unpopular and costly, as that’s certainly not the case for renewables and many other clean technologies,” he said.
“New wind farms are driving down energy bills, and polls consistently show that, if anything, people want us to roll out more renewables than we currently are, including new onshore wind.”
Greg Jackson, chief executive of Octopus Energy, the renewable energy group, said there was now a risk that the UK would lose out to other countries in the race for investment: “Harnessing the opportunities of net zero to deliver tangible financial benefits is extremely popular. Our customers love getting cheap energy when it’s windy, or being paid to use less when it’s not. Britain has had a lead in cheap, clean energy, but like so many industries of the past, we risk other countries getting the benefit of our innovation – costly for climate, cost of living and national security.”
Starmer raised concerns within the party by extending his criticism of the Ulez. “We are doing something very wrong if policies put forward by the Labour party end up on each and every Tory leaflet,” he told Labour’s national policy forum in Nottingham. It marks an escalation of his confrontation with Khan over the Ulez extension. In a change in tone, a source close to Khan said on Friday he was “listening to Londoners and always looking at ways he can address their concerns”.
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell told the Observer: “Of course potential policy banana skins have to be avoided, but if we are not careful, effectively this means allowing the Tories to edit the next Labour manifesto on the greatest issue facing us, the climate crisis.” | Not_Explicit |
Michael Gove has rejected proposals by Marks & Spencer to bulldoze and rebuild its flagship Marble Arch store on Oxford Street.
The Housing Secretary on Thursday blocked Marks & Spencer from demolishing its landmark store, objecting on the ground that the project could harm the character of the area.
Stuart Machin, chief executive of Marks & Spencer, immediately hit out at the decision which he described as “pathetic” and “anti-business”.
M&S had planned to demolish the Art Deco building and replace it with a new 10-storey retail and office block with only two and half floors used for retail space.
The retailer vowed to vacate the building if its plans were blocked, warning that the ongoing decline of the shopping district would “accelerate dramatically” if it left.
The retailer argued the change was needed to help meet net zero targets and adapt to the rise of online shopping, which has led to a fall in visits to its in-person stores. It has claimed that demolishing the building, which was built in 1929, was the only way to bring it up to modern energy standards.
Mr Machin said on Thursday: “We have been clear from the outset that there is no other viable scheme – so, after almost a century at Marble Arch, M&S is now left with no choice but to review its future position on Oxford Street on the whim of one man. It is utterly pathetic.”
The project had secured approval from Westminster City Council and the Greater London Authority for its plans, but Mr Gove seized control of the planning application amid concerns about its environmental impact.
The Secretary of State called in the plans because demolishing the 90-year-old building would release 40,000 tonnes of so-called embodied carbon.
M&S claimed that 90pc of materials from the existing site would be reused in the construction of the new building, mitigating the impact of embodied carbon. The new building would also be far more energy efficient, saving on fuel needs.
During a public inquiry, which took place last year, M&S argued that refurbishing the site would be “unsustainable” and “undeliverable”.
The retailer said: “The current site is made up of three separate buildings with poor-quality structures and asbestos challenges, which although completely safe, make it impossible to develop without rebuilding.
“The existing store is a confusing warren of dense structures and misaligned floors, which is not the environment in which the modern customer wants to shop, and the “backstage” area where our colleagues work is of a poor standard and impossible to modernise.”
On Thursday, Mr Machin warned Oxford Street risked becoming the “victim of politics”.
He added “At a time when vacancy rates on what should be the nation’s premier shopping street are 13pc higher than the average UK high street and Westminster Council is pleading for help in managing the growing proliferation of sweet shop racketeers, the Secretary of State has inexplicably taken an anti-business approach, choking off growth and denying Oxford Street thousands of new quality jobs, a better public realm and what would be a modern, sustainable, flag-bearing M&S store.”
Other retailers in the area including Selfridges and Ikea, which will be taking the former Topshop site by Oxford Circus, had supported Marks & Spencer’s plans.
Selfridges said the redevelopment would play a vital role in “maintaining Oxford Street as the UK’s national shop window”.
Mr Gove’s decision was originally supposed to be revealed in April but was delayed until July 20. | Not_Explicit |
AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Huynh Nhu started playing soccer with a coconut-like fruit for a ball as a child. Now a member of Vietnam's national team, she will captain her squad in a daunting opening match against the United States in the Women's World Cup.
The match will mark a milestone for Vietnam soccer, which is making its World Cup debut. A Vietnamese national team has never played in the men's or women's tournament.
Just making the field was an accomplishment. But now Vietnam, the 32nd-ranked women’s team in the world, faces the two-time defending tournament champions in its debut.
On paper, it seems like an incredible mismatch. Even so, Vietnamese coach Mai Duc Chung is determined to show what Vietnam can do on the global stage.
“We came here not just for tourism. We are here to play,” Mai said Friday. “The U.S. is a very, very strong team. It is like a mountain, but it doesn’t mean that we will give up. We will have very suitable tactics so that we can minimize the conceded goals.”
Vietnam qualified for the tournament through last year’s Women’s Asian Cup. The Vietnamese were knocked out in the quarterfinals by China, putting them into a round-robin playoff. They then defeated Thailand and Taiwan. Both opponents were struggling with COVID-19 issues at the time.
“We will try our best so that we can bring the image of Vietnam to the world,” Mai said. “I hope that this journey will be an inspiration for the development of Vietnamese football in the future.”
Southeast Asian soccer, especially women’s soccer, is underdeveloped compared to global powers in the sport. Vietnam's first women’s national team was formed in 1997 and Huynh is the only player who competes outside the country. She plays for Länk FC Vilaverdense in Portugal’s top soccer league.
Prior to the start of the tournament, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said each player participating in the Women's World Cup will walk away with at least $30,000 in prize money –- a bonus in developed nations but a windfall for players from countries such as Vietnam.
But then Infantino this week said he couldn’t guarantee that the member federations will distribute the payments. He said he’s still working with the federations to make that happen.
The Vietnam women’s national team members can make around $850 a month, or $10,200 a year, a ccording to the New York Times,
“We received attention from the government, from the ministry of sports and from relevant agencies,” Huynh said. “The living standards have been improved. We received the support of FIFA, so it will improve the conditions for the Vietnamese players. The amount is not small for us, particularly for the women’s players.”
Despite the increase in attention and pay, the Vietnam players are trying to treat their opening match as a normal match, with the intention of bringing pride to their home country.
“I do hope that this tournament here is endless inspiration for the children of Vietnam, for the people of Vietnam,” Huynh said.
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Zach Allen is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.
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AP Women’s World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | Not_Explicit |
Vladimir Putin arrived to Murmansk
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Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived to Murmansk on Thursday evening, July 20, the Kremlin informs. He started his visit at Novatek’s Kola Yard in Belokamenka, the plant that builds gravity-based structures for LNG projects in the Arctic.
On site to meet the president was regional Governor Andrei Chibis, Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson and Northwest Russian Presidential Representative Aleksandr Gutsan.
Putin’s visit to Murmansk comes against the backdrop of escalating relations between Russia and the West, particularly NATO countries. Over the past year, the Alliance has grown with a new member, Finland, and now Sweden is preparing to join NATO.
The last time Putin visited Murmansk region was for the Russian Navy Day in 2014. Murmansk region is home to Russia’s Northern fleet with several submarine bases on the coast to the Barents Sea. | Not_Explicit |
When the British government shared guidance earlier this month for those looking to honor Queen Elizabeth II with the use of her name and title on projects across the country, they added in one tantalizing detail: planning will begin “in due course” on the official national monument to Queen Elizabeth II. On Friday, The Telegraph reported that the government is working “hand in hand” with the royal household to form a committee for the national monument, the members of which will be announced by the anniversary of the late queen’s death.
Previous official monuments to a late monarch, like the white marble Queen Victoria Memorial outside of Buckingham Palace, have become popular tourist attractions. Though unofficial monuments to the queen—many of which involved donated Paddington Bear stuffed animals—erupted spontaneously across the nation in the days after her death on September 8, they were quickly cleared after her funeral 10 days later.
The official monument to the previous monarch, King George VI, was unveiled at St. James Park in London in 1955, three years after his death. Funded through a national campaign announced by Winston Churchill, it consists of a sculpture designed by William McMillan which shows the king wearing his naval uniform. In 2009, a statue of the Queen Mother, depicting her in Order of the Garter robes during the years after she was widowed, was added nearby.
In its guidance, the government noted that unofficial monuments to the late queen do not need approval unless they have a commercial component. “Communities, organizations and individuals may wish to mark the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and commemorate her extraordinary reign through the use of her name and title, for example by naming a park, garden or street,” the guidance read. “The full title of Queen Elizabeth II will continue to be closely protected and only be granted for applications with strong royal connections.”
Last November, King Charles III visited York Minster to unveil the first permanent monument to Queen Elizabeth II, a seven-foot limestone statue of the queen wearing her Order of the Garter robes on the exterior of the cathedral. In his speech at the event, Charles noted that the statue was originally planned to honor the queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, which also took place in 2022.
“Now, as we have witnessed, with great sadness, the passing of that reign, it is unveiled in her memory, as a tribute to a life of extraordinary service and devotion,” he added. “The late Queen was always vigilant for the welfare of her people during her life. Now, her image will watch over what will become Queen Elizabeth Square for centuries to come.” | Not_Explicit |
Struggles faced by Russian property owners in Finland, including tightened entry restrictions and challenges with maintaining and selling their properties, have prompted an appeal for assistance from President Sauli Niinistö.
The restrictions mean that some Russians have been unable to access their Finnish properties for up to two years. Igor Kostenko, from St Petersburg, told Yle he is disappointed that Finland does not even allow Russians to maintain their own cottages.
"We would like to be treated as property owners, not tourists. We should also have the opportunity to take care of our properties," Kostenko said.
Some Russian property owners frustrated by the situation have sent an appeal to Niinistö, asking him to facilitate their entry. Originally sent in January, the petition was supplemented with signatures from more than 700 Russian property owners, according to Kostenko.
Access to Finland a gamble
Starting last autumn, Russians have been banned from making tourist trips to their holiday homes in Finland, and only allowed to enter the country in order to address essential repair and maintenance work.
In early July, the border restrictions were further tightened, requiring Russian property owners to provide even more detailed reasons why the repair and maintenance work would need the owner's presence in Finland. This means that Russians should aim to assign any repair work to Finnish contractors without entering the country themselves.
According to Kostenko, ordering required repair work becomes difficult if one cannot even visit the cottage to inspect its condition. Kostenko himself came to his cottage through Norway, which still allows Russian tourists to enter the Schengen area.
The final decision on whether a Russian property owner is allowed entry is made by the Finnish Border Guard at the border.
"It's a gamble. When arriving at the border, you don't know if you'll be allowed entry," Kostenko said.
Accumulating bills
Paying bills in Finland has also become challenging for Russians because their bank accounts in Finnish banks have been partially closed, and banking connections between the two countries have been frozen.
The problem is further exacerbated because mail no longer travels between Finland and Russia.
"We used to receive property tax bills in Russia, for example. Now that no longer happens," Kostenko said.
Finland's National Enforcement Authority has confirmed that there have been more collection issues involving Russian owners' property taxes.
"We conducted a survey among district bailiffs in the regions of Kymenlaakso, South Karelia, and Savonlinna earlier this summer. It turned out that Russian property owners are now facing payment problems, which was not an issue before," said Antti Soininen, the leading district bailiff.
Selling property nearly impossible
Due to EU sanctions prohibiting transferring euros to Russia, it is nearly impossible for Russians to sell off their Finnish properties.
"We know a family who sold their house in Finland. However, the bank has not transferred the money to Russia because the account is closed, and banking connections between Finland and Russia don't work," Kostenko explained.
This has resulted in Russians trying to sell their Finnish properties by exchanging them for properties in Russia, he added. | Not_Explicit |
Police armed with rifles were in pursuit of a pig running riot near an Auckland motorway on Saturday afternoon.
But the swine gave them the slip.
Armed officers were looking for the pig near the Te Atatu motorway on-ramp on the North-Western Motorway towards Auckland after it was reported about 4pm amid heavy westbound traffic.
Police at the scene appeared to have lost sight of the pig shortly after 5pm and were turning their attention to an area of bush near the on-ramp. Officers were also awaiting the arrival of animal control.
A police spokeswoman said they were called about 4pm to the ramp.
"Police worked with animal control personnel in an attempt to capture the pig," she said.
"Attending officers were armed in case it was deemed necessary to put down the pig. Police have now left the location, the pig was not captured or put down."
About an hour earlier, reports on social media suggested a "little black pig" was running down the motorway on-ramp heading from Te Atatu Peninsula towards the city on State Highway 16.
A spokeswoman at police national headquarters said she was aware of the motorway pig.
"Police are responding to a report received shortly after 4pm of a pig running on the North-Western Motorway near the Te Atatu Road off-ramp," she said.
She could not confirm if it was a Captain Cooker or a domestic breed.
"There are no details as to the breed of pig."
- This story originally appeared on the NZ Herald website | Not_Explicit |
TERRIGAL, Australia -- About 50 miles north of Sydney, just set back from the beautiful sweeping sands of Terrigal Beach, is a slice of England. In the England women's team hotel is a cornered-off section: the team base for the duration of the World Cup complete with Yorkshire Tea, rooms named after England legends, and an area where players can craft their own bespoke trainers.
It's blissfully relaxed and against the backdrop of waves lapping on perfect sand, dogs of all shapes and sizes are walked up and down through the various cafes. The venue was chosen by a group headed up by FA women's technical director Kay Cossington and England Women's general manager Anja van Ginhoven off the back of 18 months' work, including a scouting trip in May 2022 where they visited 23 hotels, 18 training venues and boarded nine different flights. The hotel here just off the beach is coupled with the training pitch at the Central Coast Stadium, a 20-minute drive away, which is said to have the best patch of grass for football in the country.
On Wednesday, the FA opened up the team base and showed ESPN, among others, where the team relax, carry out their meetings and prepare for what they hope will be a run all the way to the final on Aug. 20. England moved into their Terrigal base the day after their 1-0 win over Haiti in Brisbane and will commute from here to their match against China in Adelaide, and then any potential trip to Brisbane again in the knockout stages.
As you walk into the team base, you're greeted by a wall of balloons in the flag of St George, with "England" written across it. The escalator up to the inner sanctum is adorned with slogans -- "Our England, Our Family, Unbreakable Bond" is one, with the whole place decked out in red and white. Everywhere you look there are motivational slogans and messages -- "Team Play for the Shirt First" is another -- all adorned across the various rooms and stations opened up to the team.
In the middle of the foyer is an arts and crafts work station, next to a Nike pop-up where the players can customize trainers. Nearby is a coffee station where, by the time we'd visited at about 11.30 a.m. on Wednesday, the baristas had already served 40 coffees to the 23 players and 30 staff who form the England operation.
Off to the side of the main foyer are various rooms, including the "Scott Relaxation Room." Back in their successful Euro 2022 campaign, the team used legends' names for their team rooms. Indeed, veteran midfielder Jill Scott was honoured that they'd named one of the rooms at their base in Teddington's Lensbury Resort after her, only to find it was actually named after former England international Alex Scott. But here in Terrigal, there is a common consensus that this Scott room is named after the newly retired Jill. (There are others named after Rachel Yankey, Fara Williams, Mary Phillip, Sheila Parker, Pat Davies and Lily Parr.)
In the Scott room is a table tennis table, two arcade games (one of which is themed around "The Simpsons,") and then two TVs -- one connected to an X-Box and another set-up for the matches. Around the corner is another craft wall and a bookshelf filled with autobiographies from the likes of tennis stars Serena Williams and Andre Agassi, as well as Wales rugby legend Alun Wyn Jones, alongside a selection of fiction from Jane Austen to Colleen Hoover, and all the Harry Potter books too. Nearby is a well-used darts board, with the outer wall peppered with remnants of stray arrows.
"A lot of people are doing a lot of colouring in and jigsaws, and we've got a unbelievable set up for the games room. The younger players play more games than the older players, but it's a relaxed camp and the staff make it very relaxed for us," defender Alex Greenwood told ESPN.
"It's got everything we can think of. It's got so much to keep us busy in our spare time, we're very lucky and grateful for what we've been given. Lauren Hemp and Niamh Charles playing table tennis a lot. Hempo is really good. I'm not playing table tennis... it's not for me."
Next to the Scott room is the [Ellen] White room. At the back is a vast projector, a tactics board, and also on the wall is the team's path through the tournament mapped out. There's a map of Australia alongside their potential route to the final, alongside a huge board reading "Real Sisterhood."
The Parr [dining] room next to it has some tactical reminders pinned to the wall, next to an abundance of home comforts like the 3.25kg bag of Yorkshire Tea, including 1,040 tea bags. This is where the team have all their meals, prepared by chefs Gareth and David. On one wall reads: "From the pitch, to the stands, at home or away, support each other through thick and thin cos that's the England way."
There's also a respectful sign nearby which reads: "We respectively acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land, the Darkinjung people, and pay our respect to their elders, past, present and emerging."
It's incredibly impressive, but perhaps even more impressive is the fact the whole wing of the hotel was put together in just three days. The FA is leaving little to chance. On the flight over, the team had their own compartment on the plane, so they brought along a specific "chrono coach" (someone who specialises in light therapy) to dictate when the lights would be dimmed. The team had already shifted to Australian time (11 hours ahead of the UK's BST) before departure, but they used different coloured sunglasses to help control their body clocks: blue light to keep them awake, orange to encourage their bodies to make melatonin to nudge into sleep.
The goal of England's team base was to make it a home from home. It was also attuned to Van Ginhoven's philosophy of making the tournament resemble a tunnel of transitions. Each step moves the players into a different competition mode, from the light and familiar nature of St George's Park back home, to the casual nature of their pretournament base on the Sunshine Coast, to Brisbane's central business district ahead of their opener against Haiti, then into this base for the remainder.
It's a far cry from Euro 2005, where Cossington remembers how the team environment was signposted with A4 printouts manually stuck to doors and players were handed a small wallet to pay for expenses.
But ask Cossington and Van Ginhoven what they're most proud of, and they turn to this portrait on a wall near the Scott Relaxation Room. It's of this England squad as youngsters, a portrait of the team imagined at the start of their love of the game. It shows where they've come from, how far they've come, and where they are now on a journey in Australia they hope will end in World Cup triumph. | Not_Explicit |
Mayor Adams will launch a radio show on WBLS-FM that will air on Sunday morning and include live call-in segments, his office said Thursday, opening him up to unscripted interactions with potentially testy constituents.
Adams said the show, “Hear from the Mayor,” will seek to highlight the efforts of working-class New Yorkers to improve the city.
“Tune in or give me a call, and hear directly from your mayor on what we are doing to build a better New York City,” Adams said in a statement.
The first show is set for 10:30 a.m. on Sunday. Politico previously reported the news of the show’s launch.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio took questions from callers each Friday on Brian Lehrer’s WNYC radio show. De Blasio would prepare for a half-hour before each appearance, said Bill Neidhardt, who served as de Blasio’s press secretary.
The moderate Adams has appeared a handful of times on Lehrer’s show, which is thought to cater to a relatively progressive audience.
It was not immediately clear how often Adams’ show would air. The mayor’s office said in a statement the show would run “semi-regularly.” An Adams spokesman, Fabien Levy, said the exact frequency was not yet set.
Inside NYC Politics
Media veterans could not recall a mayor appearing with any regularity on WBLS in recent years.
But Mayor David Dinkins, the city’s first Black mayor, would call into WBLS and WLIB, a talk station, said Dominic Carter, a former field reporter at WBLS. The segments were sometimes aired live and sometimes recorded.
Percy Sutton, a Black political trailblazer who once ran for mayor, owned WBLS and WLIB at the time.
Curtis Sliwa, the Republican staple of New York radio who lost to Adams in the 2021 mayoral election, predicted Adams would get “softball” calls. He said he believed Bloomberg’s radio segment had a stiffer screening process than Giuliani’s and de Blasio’s.
“It was the most lame calls,” Sliwa said Thursday, recalling Bloomberg’s show. “Boring as the day was long.”
But Loeser — who noted Bloomberg’s visits to “The John Gambling Show” provided plenty of fodder for the local press corps — said call screening is not foolproof, and predicted Adams’ show would likely open the mayor up to critical constituents.
“It’s pretty simple to get through a screen,” Loeser said. “It’s going to open Adams up to a lot of activists and operatives, but also real New Yorkers.” | Not_Explicit |
A watchdog group has set its sights on foreign donors funneling cash through nonprofits ahead of the 2024 elections after liberal Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss provided significant funds to organizations with links to campaigns backing President Biden and Democrats.
Americans for Public Trust (APT) recently released a report highlighting how Wyss' nonprofits doled out $425 million in funding to left-wing groups in recent years and called for "the foreign influence loophole to be closed." This money has potentially made its way to groups pushing multi-million dollar drives to boost Biden's record.
Wyss has subsidized a group that manages Climate Power, which recently teamed up with Future Forward USA Action and the Way to Win Action Fund to elevate Biden. Future Forward USA Action's affiliated political committee, Future Forward, will act as the president's main outside super PAC in this upcoming election.
"This is exactly why we must close the loophole that allows foreign money to influence American elections," APT Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News Digital.
"But the liberal politicians who shout about protecting our democracy from foreign interference have been noticeably silent about legislation that would do just that. And now we have President Biden's handpicked super PAC tangled up in the web of organizations funded by Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss. The staggering amount of foreign money that is propping up Biden's agenda needs to be stopped."
Wyss' activity has also caught the attention of Republican lawmakers, who are working on legislation to prevent foreign nationals from "influencing the American political system," Axios reported.
The Biden-backing campaigns are not the first time Wyss-funded groups have launched initiatives backing Democrats. The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Victory Fund, LCV's independent political action committee, and Climate Power shelled out $15 million last year for a "sophisticated targeting project unlike anything they'd ever undertaken before" to propel Democrats, Politico reported earlier this year.
The LCV and Climate Power are two prominent far-left environmental groups that push aggressive green transition policies and have received extensive funding from Wyss' nonprofits.
As part of the operation, LCV Victory Fund and Climate Power hired BlueLabs Analytics, a Washington, D.C.-based data science organization, to mine data of more than two million Biden voters in crucial swing states with advertisements and mailers ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
The operation, and other similar funding schemes for political activity during last year's midterms potentially tied to Wyss, raises legal questions given the billionaire's nationality. Under federal election law, foreign nationals — Wyss is listed as recently as 2021 in financial filings as a "citizen of Switzerland" — are prohibited from contributing directly or indirectly to U.S. political campaigns.
For over two decades, Wyss has been financially involved in various left-wing causes. Wyss founded the Wyss Foundation in the late 1990s as his main tax-exempt funding arm and the Berger Action Fund in 2007. The billionaire has pushed hundreds of millions of dollars to his two nonprofits, which have then spread his money to a vast array of groups, many of which, like the LCV, are actively involved in political issues.
According to tax filings, a single anonymous donor, likely Wyss himself, wired a staggering $278.9 million to the Berger Action Fund between April 2021 and March 2022. The group, in turn, contributed $72.7 million to 12 separate dark-money organizations.
LCV was among the 12 groups and received $3.5 million from Wyss' nonprofit. Other groups, including the Center for Popular Democracy, Moms Rising Together, National Redistricting Action Fund, and WorkMoney, received millions of dollars in additional contributions from the Berger Action Fund. The groups are involved in political campaigns.
The Berger Action Fund also funneled $20.3 million to a group called Fund for a Better Future (FBF), according to the tax documents. While FBF is not required to disclose its donors in its tax forms, Wyss' contribution amount was the largest anonymous donation FBF reported that year, meaning the Swiss national was FBF's biggest donor.
FBF sent nearly $10.7 million to LCV in 2021, the most significant contribution FBF gave to any group that year. Additionally, FBF oversees Climate Power, providing the group financial, legal, technological and human resources support.
Climate Power was initially founded as a project of the LCV, Center for American Progress (CAP), and the Sierra Club in 2020. Wyss has donated to CAP and remains a board member of the influential left-wing think tank.
Climate Power, meanwhile, boasts advisory board members who are also members of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. For example, both South Carolina state Rep. Harold Mitchell and Jerome Foster II, the executive director of the youth-led political advocacy group OneMillionOfUs.
Additionally, FBF contributed over $2.9 million to Building Back Together, an advocacy group primarily promoting the Biden administration's policy agenda.
Wyss' Berger Action Fund also contributed about $42.5 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a key cog in a billion-dollar dark money network.
"The Berger Action Fund and Wyss Foundation support efforts to increase access to public lands, lower the cost of healthcare, and address income inequality," Marneé Banks, a spokesperson for the nonprofits, told Fox News Digital.
"Both organizations comply with all rules governing their activities and prohibit their grants from being used for get-out-the-vote or voter registration," Banks added. "They do not support political candidates or parties, or otherwise engage in political campaigns. They support increasing transparency and accountability in our campaign finance system through the DISCLOSE Act." | Not_Explicit |
Titagarh Rail's Price Target Raised By HSBC After Q1 Profit Surges
The brokerage maintained a 'buy' rating on the company and raised its target price to Rs 750 apiece from Rs 730 apiece
Titagarh Rail System Ltd.'s revenue and earnings per share estimates, as well as its price target were upwardly revised by HSBC Global Research, citing a significant jump in demand for wagon and passenger coaches over the next few years.
The brokerage maintained a 'buy' rating on the largest wagon maker and an emerging leader in passenger coaches and raised the target price to Rs 750 apiece from Rs 730 apiece. The company is capitalising on the government's thrust to increase freight transportation by rail and modernise passenger rail transportation, the brokerage said.
Titagarh Rail System Q1 FY24 highlights (YoY):
Revenue rose 72.3% to Rs 910.76 crore.
Ebitda jumped nearly fourfold to Rs 106.11 crore.
Ebitda margin at 11.7% versus 5.4%
Net profit surged to Rs 61.78 crore from Rs 1.2 crore in Q1 FY23.
Earnings and Margin Expansion
The company's first-quarter performance was driven by robust growth in both freight and passenger rail system revenue, according to HSBC Global.
The standout contributor to this growth was the freight rail systems business, which reported a 13% segment operating margin. However, the passenger rail system margin experienced a sequential decline of 2.1%, settling at 3.9%.
The company's order backlog includes two framework contracts that it won in consortium with another firm.
The first, a contract to manufacture 80 Vande Bharat sleeper trains in consortium with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. Titagarh's share in this contract amounts to Rs 11,800 crore, the brokerage said.
The second, to manufacture and supply 15,40,000 forged wheels over a span of 20 years for Indian railways in consortium with Ramkrishna Forgings Ltd. Titagarh's share in this order is Rs 6,300 crore, the brokerage said.
Management Commentary
Titagarh affirmed that the planned capacity expansion for the freight and passenger segments is progressing as scheduled, according to the company's first-quarter earnings call. The company anticipates an increase in wagon shipments from 650–700 per month in Q1 to 1,000 per month by the end of the financial year.
Titagarh's success extends to winning wagon orders worth Rs 4.43 billion from the private sector, HSBC said.
Currently, the private sector contributes approximately 20% to the overall freight rolling stock order book, indicating a healthy collaboration, it said.
HSBC Global Research on Titagarh Rail
The brokerage has raised the price target to Rs 750.
It has also increased expectations for revenue by 2–4% and EPS by 3–9% for FY24–26e.
The research firm expects a significant jump in wagon and passenger coach shipments over FY23–26e, driving a 30% revenue compound annual growth rate over the same period.
Moreover, a 2.5x jump in profit is expected over FY23–26e, with an average return on equity of 18%.
The brokerage values the company using a one-year forward target PE multiple of 30x, which is applied to the FY26e EPS estimate and then discounted back to June 2023.
HSBC Global Research acknowledges some downside risks, including significant dependence on one government-owned entity (Indian Railways) and a potential slower-than-expected execution ramp-up of its order backlog.
Shares of Titagarh Rail Systems rose 5.43% to Rs 668.85 apiece, compared to a 0.02% fall in the benchmark Nifty 50 as of 12:11 p.m.
Total traded volume so far in the day stood at 1.5 times its 30-day average. The relative strength index was at 85.53, implying that the stock may be overbought.
All six analysts tracking the company maintain a 'buy' rating, according to Bloomberg data. The average 12-month consensus price target implies a downside of 10.8%. | Not_Explicit |
The Chino Valley Unified School District had no legitimate reason under the state open-meeting law to eject Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond from a board meeting Thursday night after he spoke against a policy requiring district officials to notify parents if students come out as transgender at school, an open government expert said.
Thurmond “did nothing whatsoever that warranted a removal from the meeting,” said David Loy, the legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, an open government group, after watching a video of the incident.
The policy Thurmond opposed was later approved by a 4-1 vote.
Thurmond had spoken for his allotted minute Thursday night before the board in San Bernardino County when he was signaled his time was up, a video of the meeting shows.
As he stopped talking and walked away from the lectern, board President Sonja Shaw responded.
“Tony Thurmond, I appreciate you being here tremendously. But here’s the problem. We’re here because of people like you. You’re in Sacramento, proposing things that pervert children,” Shaw said, her voice rising. She also criticized Thurmond for campaigning last year for then-incumbent board member Christina Gagnier, whom Shaw defeated in November.
“You walked for my opponent,” Shaw said. As she spoke, Thurmond walked back to the lectern.
In an interview with EdSource on Friday, Thurmond said he returned to the lectern because Shaw was commenting directly to him, and he thought she wanted to engage in a discussion.
Thurmond called for a “point of order,” but Shaw cut him off saying, “This is not your meeting. You may have a seat because if I did that to you in Sacramento, you would not accept it. Please sit, you are not going to blackmail us.”
Thurmond tried to respond again, and Shaw called for a five-minute break” in the meeting and left the stage where board members were sitting.
Thurmond was quickly encircled by four uniformed district security guards and walked off camera, the video shows, and left the meeting. He said in a tweet later Thursday that Shaw ordered his removal.
Neither Shaw nor district Superintendent Norm Enfield responded to messages Friday.
The state open-meetings law, the Ralph M. Brown Act, has a provision that allows a public board to remove disruptive people, but they have to be warned first “and given the opportunity to stop disrupting,” Loy said.
The act “is consistent with the First Amendment,” Loy said, in that a public board “cannot shut you down simply because it doesn’t like what you have to say.”
What happened to Thurmond could have a chilling effect on others who may decide not to speak publicly on important issues out of fear of being shouted down or forcibly removed, Loy said,
“I think it’s very troubling that (Shaw) would call out a speaker by name and in effect dress them down, with potentially what could be taken as very insulting language,” Loy said, “I’m not taking a position on the public policy debate, but (Shaw) seemed to express a certain hostility.”
Thurmond said he didn’t sense any danger from the guards or the audience, which cheered loudly as he left. He said he wanted to get ahead of the guards and went outside to speak to reporters as the meeting resumed.
“I made a decision to move ahead of them removing me and went to address the media,” Thurmond told EdSource. A statement issued by the California Department of Education late Friday said Thurmond was “forcibly escorted out of the meeting by security.”
Thurmond also told EdSource he was surprised that Shaw brought up his support for Gagnier last year.
“I volunteered for her opponent. What does that have to do with anything? Why would that be brought up at a public meeting? Politics shouldn’t be part of a public meeting. …. Once the election is over, we work together,” he said.
Thurmond said he opposed the board’s policy because it endangers students.
During his brief remarks to the board Thursday, he pointed out that “nearly half of the students who identify as LBGTQ+ have considered suicide” and that “the policy that you consider tonight may fall outside the laws that protect the privacy and safety of our students (and) may also put our students at risk because they live in homes where they cannot be safe.”
The school board ultimately voted to approve the policy, which mirrors failed Assembly Bill 1314. The California Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus described legislation that aims to “out” transgender and nonbinary students against their will as putting children in potentially life-threatening danger and subjecting them to trauma and violence.
Last week a federal judge in Sacramento struck down a similar policy passed by the Chico Unified School District Board in Butte County.
The state has a legitimate interest “in creating a zone of protection for transgender students and those questioning their gender identity from adverse hostile reactions, including, but not limited to, domestic abuse and bullying,” U.S. District Judge John Mendez wrote in a ruling dismissing a constitutional challenge to state law. Mendez wrote that students have the right to “disclose their gender identity to their parents on their own terms.”
Chino Valley Unified has had a revolving door of ultra-conservative school board members who have opposed state laws protecting transgender students’ rights. In 2021, the board attempted to ban transgender students from using restrooms and locker rooms corresponding to their gender identity but failed after the California Attorney General’s Office warned that the proposal violated the state education code and it was prepared to litigate.
To get more reports like this one, click here to sign up for EdSource’s no-cost daily email on latest developments in education. | Not_Explicit |
No Labels, Americans Elect and recent history of third-party candidate groupsThe idea behind Americans Elect was to create an alternative system for finding the candidates, independent of the two major parties and based in the limitless possibilities of the internet.
People with the group No Labels hold signs during a rally on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 18, 2011.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
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People with the group No Labels hold signs during a rally on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 18, 2011.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
In this extraordinary political season, every story seems larger than life and each event potentially apocalyptic.
That may be one cause of the feverish attention paid this week to a town hall meeting on a Monday at a small college in New Hampshire, about 16 months before the next presidential election.
No declared candidate was on hand for this event, which was not sponsored by either of the two major parties.
And that was largely the point.
The event was held by the political group No Labels, which advertises itself as a voice for moderation and an end to polarized partisanship in U.S. politics. It has been around since 2010, holding luncheon events and seminars and helping organize the "Problem Solvers Caucus" in Congress. Many have seen it as a "good government" group and nothing more.
But No Labels is getting attention now for getting involved in the presidential season of 2024. The group wants to offer an "insurance plan" by creating a "Unity Ticket" if the two major parties nominate candidates "the vast majority of Americans don't want to vote for."
It is lost on no one that, at present, both parties are moving toward nominating the same men they did in 2020 – President Biden and former President Trump – despite the fact that most Americans don't want that to happen. An NBC News poll released in April found 60% of U.S. adults did not want Trump to run, and 70% did not want Biden to run. Citing age most often, those opposing a Biden bid included nearly half the Democrats in the poll and a majority of the independents.
So the circumstances would seem ripe for someone such as No Labels to step into the breach. The group is working on an agenda and "creation of a massive 'voter file' of citizens who will support leaders courageous enough to speak truth to partisanship."
It all sounds quite high-minded, and there is no denying the voters would like to have more choices.
But there is consternation in some quarters about the impact the group could have in a close election. In 2016, more than 5% of American voters cast their votes for candidates other than Trump or Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. That was three times larger than the third-party share of the vote in 2012 or 2020, and that surge was more than enough to make the difference in several of the states where Trump barely won.
While Biden won in 2020 by 7 million votes nationally, a shift of four-tenths of one percent would have flipped Wisconsin, the same size shift would have flipped Arizona and just three-tenths of one percent would have flipped Georgia. A relative handful of votes could have reversed the Electoral College outcome.
Democrats have been disturbed enough about this to speak out against No Labels. Citing polls in 538.com and elsewhere, analysts have predicted a No Labels ticket would siphon more support from Biden than Trump.
If it also sounds somewhat familiar, it should. It is highly reminiscent of a plan offered up a dozen years ago by a group of high-powered individuals called Americans Elect. Founded in 2010 — about the same time as the original No Labels — Americans Elect had an eye toward the presidential cycle of 2012 and the stated goal of getting on the ballot in all 50 states.
Americans Elect featured some prominent individuals from both parties and from the worlds of finance and think tanks, including the late Peter Ackerman, who was a founder and early funder and whose son was installed as the group's chief operating officer. Ackerman had already had a remarkable career, finishing a doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in 1976, three years after he had begun working for the Wall Street investment house of Drexel Burnham Lambert. Working alongside the soon-to-be-notorious Michael Milken, Ackerman sold junk bonds and was reported to have taken home $165 million in 1988 alone.
Ackerman had been associated with Republican politics during the presidencies of George H.W. and George W. Bush but wanted to move beyond that, especially given the rising populist energy then known as the "Tea Party" movement. While the phrase Tea Partyhas since faded from use, much of its original energy can still be seen in the enthusiastic crowds attending rallies for Trump.
But the idea behind Americans Elect was not just to offer an alternative to the Tea Party or to Obama, or to Mitt Romney or to whichever other Republican survived the 2012 slog of caucuses and primaries. The idea was to create an alternative system of determining who the candidates would be, independent of the two major parties and based in the limitless possibilities of the internet.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., was co-headliner alongside former Utah GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman at a town hall in Manchester, N.H., Monday sponsored by the bipartisan group No Labels.
The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im
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Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., was co-headliner alongside former Utah GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman at a town hall in Manchester, N.H., Monday sponsored by the bipartisan group No Labels.
The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im
Instead of traipsing through Iowa and New Hampshire, Americans Elect offered to host a national online primary to winnow a vast field of "drafted" candidates to a single two-person ticket. Then it was to hold a convention to nominate the winning online ticket in June 2012.
The sheer boldness of the idea had appeal in an era when increasing internet access had transformed much of the economy and culture. Impressed with the concept,New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman offered a respectful description of what Americans Elect was trying to do in July 2011: "What Amazon.com did to books, what the blogosphere did to newspapers, what the iPod did to music, what drugstore.com did to pharmacies, Americans Elect plans to do to the two-party duopoly that has dominated American political life — remove the barriers to real competition, flatten the incumbents and let the people in."
That was the dream. But even as Friedman was describing the upside potential for Americans Elect, other observers warned of a spoiler effect. They noted the Americans Elect candidate could produce unintended consequences, as when progressive hero Ralph Nader shared some of the vote that might have gone to Democratic nominee Al Gore in 2000 – possibly costing him Florida and the election.
As it turned out, neither the dream nor the worst fears came true. Problems emerged in the online process, which allowed any registered U.S. voter to join Americans Elect and participate. The members could draft and vote for anyone they chose who met the constitutional requirements for the office of president or vice president. Anyone getting "support clicks" from 5,000 members in each of 10 states would advance to the first phase of actual voting.
Or that was the idea. As it turned out, participation was far below expectations and the click votes too widely dispersed. The first primary was canceled because no candidate had enough support clicks to qualify for the May event. The same fate befell the next two scheduled rounds of click voting. In July, the Americans Elect board ended its presidential process and removed the party's name from most of the 29 states where it had qualified.
Shared histories of financial question marks
There was also controversy about the finances for Americans Elect. The group grew out of another called Unity08, which had funded some selected candidates in earlier cycles. Americans Elect organized as a "social welfare" organization under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code, which allowed it to avoid disclosure of its donor list. There was criticism for that, and also for the million-dollar contributions it was known to have received from the world of high finance.
A similar critique has attached to the funding of No Labels, which uses the same tax regime. Recent news stories about the group have sometimes suggested it had something to hide, such as substantial contributions from Biden opponents who see No Labels as helpful — intentionally or not.
The other question that hovers overhead is the logistical challenge of finding candidates and building support for them. At the New Hampshire event this week, the two most visible politicians were U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican who ran for president briefly in 2012, withdrawing after finishing third in the first primary.
Neither is really a household name. Manchin faces a difficult reelection case next year, opposed by the popular Republican governor in a state Trump has twice won by nearly 40 percentage points. But he has little chance of denying Biden the Democrats' presidential nomination in 2024, so he has been mentioned often as a possible No Labels champion.
Huntsman, who has been ambassador to China and Russia under Obama and Trump, was sometimes called the Republican candidate Obama feared most in his 2012 reelection year — because he had appeal to independents and less-partisan Democrats.
In a sense, that could be said to sum up what a group such as No Labels would want in a candidate. If he seems in many ways ideal, his lack of success as a candidate (outside Utah) may also illustrate the difficulty of translating the ideal into real electoral success. That goes for voting systems and for candidates as well. | Not_Explicit |
NEW YORK -- A crane went up in flames Wednesday morning high above Manhattan, then partially collapsed onto the street below.
The fire broke out shortly before 7:30 a.m. on top of a 50-story building that was under construction on 10th Avenue between West 41st and 42nd streets.
Watch: Extended coverage of Chopper 2 overhead
Mayor Eric Adams is on the scene, along with the FDNY and Department of Buildings. First Deputy Commissioner Joseph W. Pfeifer told reporters "this could have been a lot worse."
"As our fire units responded to the scene, we had a collapse. The top part of the crane, the boom and a 16-ton load crashed to the ground," he said. "At that point, we had injuries to civilians and firefighters, but they were minor."
Six people were hurt, including two firefighters. All of the injuries are described as non-life-threatening.
Watch: Construction workers describe running for their lives
Pfeifer said the crane was lifting 16 tons of concrete when the fire started.
"That crane operator saw that the fire started and tried to extinguish it. So we give a lot of credit to the crane operator. But the fire overwhelmed that operator and had to exit the crane," he said. "The crane operator was able to get out and is safe."
He described what took place above the roofline.
"Above the roofline, there's a beam that goes out, and that's carrying the weight of concrete. And that weight of 16 tons is attached by a cable. As the fire heats the cable, the cable weakens to a point where it loses its strength, and that's when the collapse occurred," he explained.
Watch: Video shows moment crane came crashing down
Drivers are urged to avoid the area for the morning commute, as several roads are closed.
Nearby buildings have been evacuated, and others are also advised to shut their windows.
Watch the latest developments streaming live on CBS News New York in the player above and on our app.
for more features. | Not_Explicit |
- Companies
LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) - Work has begun on a 2.4 billion pound (2.8 billion euro) project to build the first power cable linking Britain and Germany, said NeuConnect Interconnector, which is leading the move to connect two of Europe’s largest energy markets for the first time
The new energy link will extend over 725 kilometres (450 miles) in length, mostly under the sea, and will be one of the world's largest interconnector projects.
The cables could transfer up to 1.4 gigawatts (GW) of electricity to flow in either direction between Britain and Germany, NeuConnect said in a statement on Wednesday.
The project will help boost energy security as Europe seeks alternatives to Russian pipeline gas following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
"NeuConnect is a key project to support Germany and the UK in achieving their climate targets and to boost energy security," said Miguel Berger, the German ambassador to the UK.
"It is the largest Anglo-German infrastructure project and will enable us to share excess power – preventing renewable energy from being wasted."
The project is financed by France's Meridiam, Germany's Allianz Capital Partners and Japan's Kansai Electric Power (9503.T) with a consortium of more than 20 banks and financial institutions, including the UK Infrastructure Bank and the European Investment Bank.
NeuConnect, which obtained the financial green light in July 2022, will construct new converter stations on the Isle of Grain, in south east England, and the Wilhelmshaven region, in Lower Saxony, northern Germany, connected by subsea cables travelling through British, Dutch and German waters.
The project is expected to be operational by 2028.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Not_Explicit |
Gains From Penny Stocks Should Be Treated As Capital Gains, Says Bombay High Court
This is significant as long-term capital gains are taxable at 10%, while unexplained cash credits are taxed at a flat rate of 60%.
In a relief for investors, the Bombay High Court has ruled that gains from penny stocks have to be treated as long-term capital gains as opposed to unexplained cash credits.
This is significant as long-term capital gains are taxable at 10%, while unexplained cash credits are taxed at a flat rate of 60%.
The recent order affirms a 2016 order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal that allowed proceeds from penny stocks to be treated as long-term capital gains as long as payment and delivery of shares are made. Exemption from long-term capital gains cannot be denied just because there is a SEBI investigation into the irregularities of the scrip, the tribunal held.
The revenue authority had contended that several taxpayers misused the exemptions provided under the Income Tax Act for sale proceeds from listed equity shares to declare their unaccounted income, leading to tax erosion.
These entities, in collaboration with stockbrokers, buy penny stocks from predetermined companies selected by the brokers. The broker then gradually rigs the price of these shares. When the price reaches the desired level, the entity sells the shares it purchased to a paper company owned by it. The purchase is completed using unaccounted money from the taxpayer.
Prior to 2018, taxpayers were exempt from paying long-term capital gains tax as long as the gains arose from the sale of listed securities. The provision was intended to encourage long-term investment in the securities market.
However, considering the misuse, the government, through the Finance Bill of 2018, made all such gains taxable at 10% as long as they exceeded Rs 1 lakh. The present case dates back to the pre-amendment period.
In the present case, it was the revenue authority's argument that the gains Indravadan Jain (Hindu undivided family) earned from the sale of shares of Ramakrishna Fincap Ltd. should be treated as unexplained cash credit as the scrip was revealed to be a penny stock in the assessment officer's investigation.
It was alleged that the transactions were bogus as the broker who dealt in the shares was found to have indulged in price manipulation by SEBI for the very same scrip.
However, according to the court, since the shares were purchased on the floor of stock exchanges and not from any broker, and as payments were made and deliveries taken, the exemption accorded to listed securities under long-term capital gains should be extended to penny stocks as well. | Not_Explicit |
Empty store shelves, people on the brink of starvation, and a region on the brink of yet another massive humanitarian crisis. Nagorno-Karabakh and its residents have once again been cut off from essential supplies after Azerbaijan suspends road traffic on the only road linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. For months, between December 2022 and April 2023, environmentalists from Azerbaijan — allegedly linked to the government — were blocking the Lachin Corridor, the only route connecting Armenia to Karabakh across the territory of Azerbaijan. Then on April 28, 2023, the so-called “eco-activists” suspended their blockade following the installation of an Azerbaijani border checkpoint on the corridor. However, since mid-June, no supplies have been allowed past the Azerbaijani checkpoint, and gas supplies have been once again cut off from the region. Azerbaijan has also blocked International Red Cross vehicles from entering the region, citing “contraband” prevention measures. On July 14, thousands of Armenians gathered in Stepanakert (Khankendi in Azerbaijani), Nagorno-Karabakh's capital, and marched to the ICRC office in the city and the Russian peacekeeper base on the city’s outskirts, reported OC Media.
Lachin blockade
Armenia and Azerbaijan may have fought a war two years ago and signed an agreement to end hostilities, but tensions between the two countries over the Karabakh region linger. When the blockade began in December, at first, the protesters demanded Armenia stop the illegal mining in Karabakh and prevent the transfer of minerals into the country. However, in the following days, the demands changed. According to reporting by Radio Liberty at the time, the protesters’ demands changed to “Baku establish control over the Lachin Corridor.”
The border checkpoint set up by Azerbaijan is viewed as a way to better facilitate the blockade of Nagorno Karabakh. Azerbaijan holds the upper hand in screening any vehicle traveling between Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. Reports that residents were being screened by the Azerbaijani border troops emerged on May 1. According to reports, footage appeared to show Armenian vehicles passing through the checkpoint, with Azerbaijani border control officers inspecting their vehicles and documents.
“The people are from villages near the checkpoint under double blockade and were traveling with the support of peacekeepers, with guarantees of not being bothered,” wrote Artak Beglaryan, an adviser to the State Minister, on Twitter at the time when the checkpoint was set up.
The most recent blockade has left some 120,000 local Armenians cut off from supplies, causing severe shortages:
This elderly woman suffers serious health issues, can’t walk long distances. Due to absence of fuel, there’s no public transportation, leaving her no choice but to walk to find some food. 20,000 elderly civilians go through immense daily suffering due to Azerbaijan’s blockade. pic.twitter.com/tRMmjyXDGJ
— Siranush Sargsyan (@SiranushSargsy1) July 18, 2023
According to reporting by Eurasianet, since July 18, “public transportation services were cut to a bare minimum — only 2.4 percent of the pre-blockade volume.”
Peace talks
On July 15, leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia met in Brussels in talks mediated by the European Council. This was the sixth such meeting that has taken place since the two nations fought a 44-day war in 2020. In June, their foreign ministers convened at a meeting in Washington, DC.
It was an honor to host Azerbaijani Foreign Minister @Bayramov_Jeyhun and Armenian Foreign Minister @AraratMirzoyan at our beautiful new @FSIatState campus. Pleased with the progress made and optimistic an agreement is within reach. pic.twitter.com/rLOIwvagmM
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) May 4, 2023
In Brussels, following the meeting between the leaders of both countries, the President of the Council of Europe, Charles Michel, said in a statement, “I commended the leaders for their strong commitment to the peace process and encouraged them to take further courageous steps to ensure decisive and irreversible progress on the normalization track.”
But while the leaders discussed some of the pressing points of reaching a final peace deal, there has been little sign of progress on the “most difficult issue — the fate of ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh,” wrote Olesya Vartanyan, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, an independent organization that works to prevent wars and shape policies.
The Nagorno-Karabakh area has been under the control of its ethnic Armenian population as a self-declared state since a war fought in the early 1990s, which ended with a ceasefire and Armenian military victory in 1994. In the aftermath of the first war, a new, internationally unrecognized, de facto Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was established. Seven adjacent regions were occupied by the Armenian forces. As a result of that war, “more than a million people had been forced from their homes: Azerbaijanis fled Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and the adjacent territories, while Armenians left homes in Azerbaijan,” according to the International Crisis Group. Following the second Karabakh war in 2020, Azerbaijan regained control over much of the previously occupied seven regions. Azerbaijan also captured one-third of Karabakh itself during the war. On November 10, 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia.
According to Vartanyan, although significant progress was made in talks between the two nations in light of Armenian leadership's “significant concessions” since the end of hostilities in 2020, the fate of ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh remains unclear. “Armenia is insisting it includes special rights and ensures the security of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian population. International mediators also want special measures due to decades of conflict and the recent 2020 war that claimed over 7,000 lives in just six weeks,” wrote the analyst.
Azerbaijan has yet to produce a document outlining its next steps regarding the ethnic Armenian population. Speaking to Reuters, Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said guarantees for ethnic Armenians were not negotiable as this would amount to interfering with Azerbaijan's internal politics. “This is an internal, sovereign issue. The Azerbaijan constitution and a number of international conventions to which Azerbaijan is party provide all the necessary conditions in order to guarantee the rights of this population,” said Bayramov.
In an interview with Politico, Tigran Grigoryan, a political analyst and the director of the Regional Center for Democracy and Security in Yerevan, said if faced with a choice, the local Armenian population will “choose to leave” rather than “accept [Azerbaijani] passports.”
A recent International Crisis Group report published in May 2023 explains how the new checkpoint is viewed among the local Nagorno Karabakh residents:
[Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh] worry that the checkpoint’s imposition represents a form or muscle flexing that could be the precursor to ethnic cleansing. This move unsettles the ethnic Armenians, who cite a violent history – in particular, Azerbaijani-orchestrated attacks on ethnic Armenians in the late 1980s – that leads them to equate Azerbaijani control with oppression. Indeed, both Azerbaijanis and Armenians harbor bitter memories of being forced to flee areas controlled by the other group in the wake of conflict and for fear of additional bloodshed.
The new round of blockade has given Azerbaijan an upper hand at the negotiation table over peace agreements as well. Speaking to Eurasianet, Zaur Shiriyev, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, “Simply put, Baku controls the Lachin road, meaning everything is in their hands, and while it remains a priority, it seems that there is no immediate urgency to reaching a peace agreement.”
Despite the repeated international calls to end the blockade, official Baku is reluctant to lift the blockade. Meanwhile, reports of deadly clashes continue. And prospects for peace remain hanging by a thread. | Not_Explicit |
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) is set to headline a fundraising event aimed toward ousting Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) from office, even as the first-term senator has not yet announced whether she plans to run for reelection.
The event will formally resume efforts by the Replace Sinema PAC to boost the group’s chosen candidate to win the Senate seat in 2024: Rep. Ruben Gallego. Goldman is one of four members of Congress to endorse Gallego in the race, along with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Seth Moulton (D-MA).
The fundraiser comes after Gallego managed to outraise Sinema for his second consecutive quarter, raking in $3.1 million during the second quarter alone — besting Sinema’s $1.7 million. Still, Sinema benefits from a hefty war chest of $10.8 million, nearly triple of Gallego’s cash on hand.
Gallego launched his Senate bid in January, just one month after Sinema announced she would be leaving the Democratic Party. Since then, the fifth-term lawmaker has shown considerable momentum as he has dominated both polling and fundraising.
Sinema has not yet indicated whether she plans to run for reelection. However, her candidacy would pose a high-profile three-way race for the crucial swing seat that is likely to become one of the most expensive races of the 2024 cycle.
So far, only one Republican candidate has entered the race: Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, who reported a fundraising haul of $608,000 last quarter. All eyes are also on failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who lost to Katie Hobbs in 2022, to see if she launches a bid as well.
The Arizona Senate race is expected to be one of the most competitive elections of the 2024 cycle. It’s one of only three to be rated as a toss-up by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. | Not_Explicit |
Ada Hegerberg tweaks groin in warmups, pulls out of Norway-Switzerland match
Star forward Ada Hegerberg was involved in a stunning development that saw her pulled out of Norway's Women's World Cup contest against Switzerland just moments before kickoff in Hamilton, New Zealand.
Hegerberg, a former winner of the Ballon D'Or Femenin award given to the best player in the world, shocked fans and television viewers by disappearing down the stadium tunnel just as the Group A clash was getting underway.
FOX reported that Hegerberg had felt discomfort in her groin while performing a final sprint as part of her pre-game warmup, with the teams already on the field and the national anthems having been performed.
She was evaluated by team doctor Trygve Hunemo and returned to the locker room to receive treatment, according to Norwegian TV. Further details as to her status remained incomplete as the Norwegians began their crucial matchup, having lost their opener to New Zealand.
Hegerberg has spent nine years with dominant French club Lyon, and is one of Europe's most feared goalscorers. However, this is only her second World Cup, as she spent five years away from the national team due to a dispute with Norway's soccer federation.
Ahead of the Switzerland matchup, Hegerberg sounded determined to kickstart the team's campaign.
"I think a lot about how I can perform as well as possible and how we can win," she told reporters. "I try to be positive. It gets very serious at times like this, we have to enjoy the football."
'I feel that it's only going forward and upwards now' - Ada Hegerberg talks return with Norway & World Cup expectations
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2023 Women's World Cup schedule: How to watch, TV channel, dates, results
Netherlands' tight win sets up showdown with USWNT
Women's World Cup Daily: Netherlands draws level with USA in Group E standings
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What's with so many PKs, and so many misses, in this Women's World Cup?
Italy-Argentina, Germany-Morocco predictions, picks by Chris 'The Bear' Fallica
Women's World Cup power rankings: USA stays on top; Germany holds onto top-3 spot
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2023 Women's World Cup odds: USA remains favorite to three-peat
Brazilian players at Women's World Cup urge fans to skip work to watch their matches
World Cup NOW: How Netherlands might give U.S. problems
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2023 Women's World Cup schedule: How to watch, TV channel, dates, results
Netherlands' tight win sets up showdown with USWNT
Women's World Cup Daily: Netherlands draws level with USA in Group E standings
-
What's with so many PKs, and so many misses, in this Women's World Cup?
Italy-Argentina, Germany-Morocco predictions, picks by Chris 'The Bear' Fallica
Women's World Cup power rankings: USA stays on top; Germany holds onto top-3 spot
-
2023 Women's World Cup odds: USA remains favorite to three-peat
Brazilian players at Women's World Cup urge fans to skip work to watch their matches
World Cup NOW: How Netherlands might give U.S. problems | Not_Explicit |
Outspoken pro-war blogger Igor Girkin, who has fiercely criticised Russia's military strategy in Ukraine, has been remanded in custody by a court in Moscow, accused of extremism.
The hardline nationalist, also known as Igor Strelkov, could face up to five years in jail.
His wife said he was detained on Friday at their Moscow flat while she was out.
A former FSB intelligence colonel, Strelkov played a key role in Russia's 2014 landgrab of Crimea.
He went on to lead Russia's proxy army in the ensuing war in eastern Ukraine.
Igor Strelkov was one of three men convicted in absentia by a Dutch court last November of murder for his role in a missile strike in 2014 that downed a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over the conflict area, with the loss of all 298 people on board.
But as the full-scale invasion of last year became increasingly bogged down, Strelkov's criticism of military failings and the commander in chief, President Vladimir Putin, became more vociferous.
"We have already lost," he told social media followers last year.
A few days ago he called the Kremlin leader "a nonentity" and "a cowardly waste of space", says BBC Russia editor Steve Rosenberg.
Strelkov's lawyer, Alexander Molokhov, said that after he had been detained his flat had been searched.
Strelkov later appeared at Meshchansky district court in the north-east of the capital, where the judge rejected his request for the hearing to be held behind closed doors, Ria Novosti agency reports. He will now remain in pre-trial detention until at least 18 September.
The war-blogger has been allowed free rein to criticise the president and the military for a long time, so it is unclear what led Russia's Investigative Committee to charge him at this point with using the internet to appeal for "extremist activity".
Ever since the start of the war, opponents of Russia's so-called special military operation in Ukraine have been handed lengthy jail terms for far milder remarks.
But earlier this week a retired Russian intelligence officer, Vladimir Kvachkov, was charged with "discrediting" the Russian army. He and Strelkov had created the "Club of Angry Patriots", livestreaming their criticism of Russia's political and military leadership.
For many years Strelkov, 53, had been considered untouchable, says BBC Russian's Ilya Barabanov.
That was partly because of his previous role as a colonel in the FSB security service, but also because he was identified as a suspect and later convicted of downing flight MH-17 while he was commander of Russia's proxy force in occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Russian investigative website Agentstvo suggested that authorities had revised a previously unspoken rule allowing pro-war bloggers to vent their anger as much as they liked.
Commentator Tatiana Stanovaya said this was a moment that many among the siloviki - the president's inner circle - had eagerly awaited.
Strelkov had long ago "overstepped all conceivable boundaries", she said, but the failure of mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin had left the army command with greater leverage to quash its opponents.
Prigozhin's Wagner group has had its powers cut since the botched mutiny last month, and the warlord himself has held back from his earlier expletive-laden tirades against the defence minister and army chief.
This week he appeared in a video, apparently filmed in Belarus, welcoming his fighters and saying that Russia's campaign in Ukraine was a "disgrace we want no part of".
Reports say that of the estimated 25,000 Wagner mercenaries, 10,000 are heading for Belarus while the others are going "on leave". One independent report said that Vladimir Putin had made a final decision that Wagner would cease to exist in Russia itself.
Ukraine's main intelligence directorate welcomed Strelkov's detention as a sign that those inside the Kremlin were approaching an "active phase of internal confrontation". | Not_Explicit |
Entre el 20 de julio y 20 de agosto se realiza el Mundial de fútbol femenino Australia-Nueva Zelanda 2023 con la participación de los mejores 32 seleccionados del planeta, entre ellos la Argentina. En la primera etapa los combinados se enfrentan todos contra todos en sus respectivos grupos y los dos líderes clasificarán a octavos de final. Desde entonces, hay cruces de eliminación directa hasta la definición. Todos los encuentros se transmiten en vivo por DirecTV.
La empresa tiene los derechos para emitir en la Argentina los partidos de la Copa del Mundo y pondrá en pantalla a los 64 programados. Cada duelo se proyectará en vivo a través de las señales de DSports y por la plataforma digital DGO, para la cual se requiere ser cliente del cableoperador.
De los elencos que competirán en la cita ecuménica, la Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (Conmebol) tiene tres representes porque, además del combinado nacional, lo harán Brasil y Colombia. Chile y Paraguay no superaron el repechaje y se quedaron afuera. Europa es el que más conjuntos aporta con 12: Noruega, Suiza, Irlanda, España, Inglaterra, Dinamarca, Países Bajos, Portugal, Francia, Suecia, Italia y Alemania. La Confederación de Norteamérica, Centroamérica y el Caribe de Fútbol (Concacaf) contará con seis participantes: Canadá, Costa Rica, Haití, Estados Unidos, Jamaica y Panamá. África aportará a Nigeria, Zambia, Sudáfrica y Marruecos. El resto son los anfitriones de Oceanía y asiáticos como Filipinas, Japón, China, Vietnam y Corea del Sur.
La pelota en la cita ecuménica empezó a rodar este jueves con el duelo inaugural entre Nueva Zelanda y Noruega en el estadio Eden Park de Auckland correspondiente a la primera fecha del grupo A (ganó el local 1 a 0). En la primera jornada habrá otros dos partidos del grupo B. A las 7 (hora argentina) se enfrentarán Australia vs. Irlanda mientras que a las 23.30, es decir en el viernes en Oceanía, Nigeria chocará con Canadá. La primera fecha de la zona concluirá el 21 de julio con Filipinas vs. Suiza desde las 2.
El certamen repartirá, en total, 152 millones de dólares en premios, el triple de lo que se distribuyó en Francia 2019 y 10 veces más que Canadá 2015. El dinero no solo se otorgará a las federaciones de los países, sino también que las 736 futbolistas de los 32 equipos recibirán un premio de 30.000 dólares por solo competir en la etapa de grupos.
Fixture del Mundial 2023
Etapa de grupos
Grupo A
Fecha 1
Nueva Zelanda vs. Noruega - Jueves 20 de julio a las 4.
Filipinas vs. Suiza - Viernes 21 de julio a las 2.
Fecha 2
Nueva Zelanda vs. Filipinas - Martes 25 de julio a las 2.30.
Suiza vs. Noruega - Martes 25 de julio a las 5.
Fecha 3
Suiza vs. Nueva Zelanda - Domingo 30 de julio a las 4.
Noruega vs. Filipinas - Domingo 30 de julio a las 4.
Grupo B
Fecha 1
Australia vs. Irlanda - Jueves 20 de julio a las 7.
Nigeria vs. Canadá - Jueves 20 de julio a las 23.30.
Fecha 2
Canadá vs. Irlanda - Miércoles 26 de julio a las 9.
Australia vs. Nigeria - Jueves 27 de julio a las 7.
Fecha 3
Canadá vs. Australia - Lunes 31 de julio a las 7.
Irlanda vs. Nigeria - Lunes 31 de julio a las 7.
Grupo C
Fecha 1
España vs. Costa Rica - Viernes 21 de julio a las 4.30.
Zambia vs. Japón - Sábado 22 de julio a las 4.
Fecha 2
Japón vs. Costa Rica - Miércoles 26 de julio a las 2.
España vs. Zambia - Miércoles 26 de julio a las 4.30.
Fecha 3
Japón vs. España - Lunes 31 de julio a las 4.
Costa Rica vs. Zambia - Lunes 31 de julio a las 4.
Grupo D
Fecha 1
Inglaterra vs. Haití - Sábado 22 de julio a las 6.30.
Dinamarca vs. China - Sábado 22 de julio a las 9.
Fecha 2
Inglaterra vs. Dinamarca - Viernes 28 de julio a las 5.30.
China vs. Haití - Viernes 28 de julio a las 8.
Fecha 3
China vs. Inglaterra - Martes 1 de agosto a las 8.
Haití vs. Dinamarca - Martes 1 de agosto a las 8.
Grupo E
Fecha 1
Estados Unidos vs. Vietnam - Viernes 21 de julio a las 22.
Países Bajos vs. Portugal - Domingo 23 de julio a las 4.30.
Fecha 2
Estados Unidos vs. Países Bajos - Miércoles 26 de julio a las 22.
Portugal vs. Vietnam - Jueves 27 de julio a las 4.30.
Fecha 3
Portugal vs. Estados Unidos - Martes 1 de agosto a las 4.
Países Bajos vs. Vietnam - Martes 1 de agosto a las 4.
Grupo F
Fecha 1
Francia vs. Jamaica - Domingo 23 de julio a las 7.
Brasil vs. Panamá - Lunes 24 de julio a las 8.
Fecha 2
Francia vs. Brasil - Sábado 29 de julio a las 7.
Panamá vs. Jamaica - Sábado 29 de julio a las 9.30.
Fecha 3
Panamá vs. Francia - Miércoles 2 de agosto a las 8.
Jamaica vs. Brasil - Miércoles 2 de agosto a las 8.
Grupo H
Fecha 1
Alemania vs. Marruecos - Lunes 24 de julio a las 5.30.
Colombia vs. Corea del Sur - Lunes 24 de julio a las 23.
Fecha 2
Corea del Sur vs. Marruecos - Domingo 30 de julio a las 1.30.
Alemania vs. Colombia - Domingo 30 de julio a las 6.30.
Fecha 3
Corea del Sur vs. Alemania - Jueves 3 de agosto a las 7.
Marruecos vs. Colombia - Jueves 3 de agosto a las 7.
Octavos de final
1° Grupo A vs. 2° Grupo C - Sábado 5 de agosto a las 2.
1° Grupo C vs. 2° Grupo A - Sábado 5 de agosto a las 5.
1° Grupo E vs. 2° Grupo G - Sábado 5 de agosto a las 23.
1° Grupo G vs. 2° Grupo E - Domingo 6 de agosto a las 6.
1° Grupo D vs. 2° Grupo B - Lunes 7 de agosto a las 4.30.
1° Grupo B vs. 2° Grupo D - Lunes 7 de agosto a las 7.30.
1° Grupo H vs. 2° Grupo F - Martes 5 de agosto a las 5.
1° Grupo F vs. 2° Grupo H - Martes 8 de agosto a las 8.
Cuartos de final
Ganador partido 1 vs. Ganador partido 3 - Jueves 10 de agosto a las 22.
Ganador partido 2 vs. Ganador partido 4 - Viernes 11 de agosto a las 4.30.
Ganador partido 5 vs. Ganador partido 7 - Sábado 12 de agosto a las 4.
Ganador partido 6 vs. Ganador partido 8 - Sábado 12 de agosto a las 7.30.
Semifinales
Ganador partido 1 vs. Ganador partido 2 - Martes 15 de agosto a las 5.
Ganador partido 3 vs. Ganador partido 4 - Miércoles 16 de agosto a las 7.
Partido por el tercer puesto
Perdedor Semifinal 1 vs. Perdedor semifinal 2 - Sábado 19 de agosto a las 5.
Final
Ganador Semifinal 1 vs. Ganador semifinal 2 - Domingo 20 de agosto a las 7. | Not_Explicit |
Terrifying wildfires have ripped through the Greek island of Rhodes over the past week, forcing thousands of holidaymakers to flee and leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
The mass exodus has been described by Greece's government as the 'largest ever' wildfire evacuation in the country's history.
Many British tourists have been stranded on the island with no way home.
It has left many observers wondering how the fires actually started and whether climate change is to blame.
It has not yet been confirmed what caused the fires to start, but Greek firefighters suspect arson is to blame.
Yiannis Artopios, a fire service spokesman, said the authorities were currently questioning a group of suspects.
'Fires are not sparked on their own,' he told Greek television network Skai TV.
'They are triggered by the human hand, be it intentionally or not. We currently have several people being questioned in connection with their probable involvement.'
The same is suspected in Corfu.
Giorgos Mahimaris, the mayor of North Corfu, told the BBC that the fire on the island was a result of arson by a 'group of people'.
Although this may be the case, the heatwave which has been sweeping across Europe will not have helped either.
That's because searing heat creates dry conditions that make it easier for fires to take hold and spread.
MailOnline spoke to experts, who explained that the scorching temperatures are being driven by three key factors - El Niño, a stationary high-pressure system also known as an anticyclone, and climate change.
Professor Stefan Doerr, director of the Centre for Wildfire Research at Swansea University, said: 'Any ignition can rapidly turn into a fast moving wildfire. That could be faulty power lines, small intentional fires to burn debris getting out of control, sparks from moving machinery or building activity or arson.
'Focusing mainly on ignition sources distracts from the main issues which are more flammable landscapes due to insufficient management of vegetation and more extreme weather due to climate change.'
Where have the fires spread to?
The Greek islands of Corfu and Evia are the latest to be caught in the blaze, following on from Rhodes.
Dr Thomas Smith, associate professor in environmental geography at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), said: 'The wildfire on Rhodes began almost a week ago on Tuesday 18 July, and was confined to the hilly terrain of the interior of the island until Saturday when strong northerly winds drove the fire at a fast pace to the coast, some 20 km to the south.
'This coastline is packed with large resort hotels and was the main focus of the evacuation.'
It is not just big tourist destinations and beaches that are affected, however.
Small villages such as Malona and Masari in Rhodes have also been evacuated.
Who has been affected?
Winds are blowing the wildfires towards popular resorts, with 19,000 people in being evacuated from the island of Rhodes.
More than 3,000 people were rescued from beaches and 16,000 from land.
Travel company TUI has announced it is stopping all flights to Rhodes until July 28. Meanwhile, 10,000 Britons are estimated to still be stranded on Rhodes, waiting to get home.
Humans are not the only species who need rescuing. Photographs and videos of animals struggling and dying are also circling social media.
What role did the heatwave play?
Although the fires may have been started by arsonists, the scorching temperatures of the 40 degree Cerberus heatwave are what allowed the blaze to spread so quickly and dangerously.
Last year, a report by UNEP and GRID-Arendal found that climate change and land-use change were making wildfires worse, anticipating a global increase of extreme fires even in areas previously unaffected.
It stated that wildfires were 'becoming more intense and more frequent, ravaging communities and ecosystems in their path'.
Dr Douglas Kelley, a land surface modeller at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, said: 'It is too early to say if climate change has caused these wildfires.
'However, the fact there are now so many across the world, most recently in Greece and Canada, is a clear sign that climate change is causing an increase in the number of severe wildfires globally.
'Heatwaves such as the one in Greece are more likely under climate change. A heatwave dries out vegetation and dead plant material, which makes the fires more intense and spread much faster, especially with the recent high winds.
'While not uncommon in southern Europe, what was unusual about the fires in Rhodes was the intensity and the speed at which they spread.
'We predict there will be a global increase in these extreme fires of up 50 per cent by the end of the century.' | Not_Explicit |
The 45th Berlin Pride parade, known in Germany as the Christopher Street Day or CSD featured around 75 trucks that led the huge crowd through the city's downtown on a 7.4-kilometer (4.6-mile) route.
House and electro beats could be heard playing as participants partied in colorful, neon outfits under the motto "Be their voice — and ours! For more empathy and solidarity!"
The celebration was linked to political demands to work for an open society and against hate and exclusion.
Sequins, heels and flesh dominate
Beyond the political demands, the parade was noted for its imaginative costumes, extravagant wigs, fetish outfits, high heels and lots of naked skin.
One participant even walked through the streets dressed as the Lioness of Kleinmachnow, mocking a massive two-day hunt near Berlin for an escaped lioness that was called off on Friday after it was realized she was probably just a wild boar.
Police and organizers initially did not want to give estimates on the number of participants.
Ahead of the parade, the organizers had expected about 500,000 attendees — significantly more than last year's 350,000-strong crowd.
Berlin's conservative mayor Kai Wegner and Bärbel Bas, president of the German parliament, opened the parade together calling on people to fight discrimination against LGBTQ people.
"We have to send a clear signal for a free, diverse, multifaceted society. We have achieved a lot, but we still have a lot to do," said Bas.
Berlin mayor calls for better rights
Wegner also promised an amendment to the German Basic Law during his opening speech at the parade to include sexual identity.
"My commitment to the Berlin Senate is: We want to change Article 3 of the Basic Law. Sexual identity must be included in it. This is my promise," Wegner said.
Wegner, a politician for the center-right Christian Democratic Party (CDU) was subjected to loud booing during his speech.
He is the first Berlin mayor to attend the opening of the Pride march.
Germany's constitution has protections against discrimination based on sex, ethnicity, race, language, home country and origin, faith and religious or political views, but not specifically sexual orientation.
The LGBTQ+ community has long been calling for the article to be amended.
Chancellor, Bundestag offer symbol of support
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wished the participants a happy celebration on Twitter, adding: "Diversity is our strength."
The rainbow flag was raised outside the chancellory earlier Saturday and on the Reichstag building, the home of the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag.
The only party not to support the event was the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). One AfD lawmaker, Martin Reichardt, took to Twitter to criticize the raising of the rainbow flag, saying it stands for the "sexualization of children."
The parade was due to end with an evening concert at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, including a performance by the German rock band Tokio Hotel.
Christopher Street Day shares its roots with Pride as celebrated in other countries and dates back to events in June 1969, when police officers in New York stormed the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street in the Greenwich Village section of lower Manhattan, triggering a historic riot.
mm/ab (AFP, dpa) | Not_Explicit |
WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden has represented her country at the Olympics in Tokyo, a king's coronation in London and a royal wedding in Jordan. She gets another chance to put her ambassadorial skills to work this week when the United States formally rejoins a United Nations agency devoted to education, science and culture around the globe.
Biden was arriving in Paris early Monday after flying overnight from Washington to join other VIPs and speak at a ceremony Tuesday at the headquarters of the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization. The American flag will be raised to mark the U.S. return to membership after a five-year absence.
UNESCO aims to foster global collaboration in education, science and culture. It also designates World Heritage sites, deeming them worthy of eternal preservation.
The agency on Sunday condemned Russia’s attack on a cathedral in Odesa and other heritage sites in Ukraine in recent days and said it will send a team to the Black Sea port city to assess damage.
In a statement, UNESCO noted that Odesa’s historic center was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site earlier this year and said attacks by Russian forces contradict recent promises by Russian authorities to take precautions to spare such sites across the country.
Before returning to Washington on Wednesday, Biden will tour a historic venue in France, Mont-Saint-Michel, a 1,000-year-old Benedictine abbey that was listed as a World Heritage site in 1979. It sits on an island in Normandy, in the north of the country.
A daughter and mother of U.S. service members, the first lady will also visit Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial to pay respects to the more than 4,400 U.S. service members buried there, most of whom died in Normandy and Brittany during World War II.
She will also stop at the Elysée Palace in Paris on Tuesday to catch up with Brigitte Macron, a former teacher and the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron. The women have met several times over the past two years, including in Washington last December when Macron was on a state visit to the U.S.
Senior Biden administration officials said returning to UNESCO fits President Joe Biden’s goal of strengthening global partnerships and recommitting to American leadership at the U.N. and other international organizations to serve as a counter to nations that do not share U.S. values.
Others said Jill Biden, who teaches English and writing at a Virginia community college, was best suited to represent the United States in Paris on Tuesday.
“The first lady, as a lifelong educator and believer in the power of educational opportunity across the world, is honored to help celebrate this important milestone,” said Elizabeth Alexander, a spokesperson. “She looks forward to raising the flag for the United States once again at the UNESCO headquarters, showing our country’s commitment to international cooperation in education, science, and culture.”
The U.S. pulled out of the Paris-based organization in 2018, under then-President Donald Trump, a Republican who claimed UNESCO was biased against Israel.
The administration of Biden, a Democrat, pushed to rejoin over concerns that China was filling the void in leadership created by the U.S. absence.
The administration announced in June that it would apply to rejoin the 193-member organization that also plays a major role in setting international standards for artificial intelligence and technology education.
The organization’s governing board voted earlier this month to approve the Biden plan to rejoin, and the U.S. delivered a document certifying that it would accept the invitation to become the 194th member of UNESCO.
“Our organization is once again moving towards universality,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said at the time. She cast the U.S return as “excellent news for multilateralism as a whole. If we want to meet the challenges of our century, there can only be a collective response.”
The Trump administration in 2017 announced that the U.S. would withdraw from UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias. That decision that took effect a year later.
The U.S. and Israel stopped financing UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member state in 2011.
The Biden administration has requested $150 million for the 2024 budget to go toward UNESCO dues and arrears. The plan foresees similar requests for the ensuing years until the full debt of $619 million is repaid.
That makes up a big chunk of UNESCO’s $534 million annual operating budget. Before leaving, the U.S. contributed 22% of the agency’s overall funding.
The United States previously pulled out of UNESCO under the Reagan administration in 1984 because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance Soviet interests. It rejoined in 2003 during George W. Bush’s presidency. His wife, Laura, spoke at the ceremony.
Standing in for the president at home and abroad has become a big part of a first lady's unofficial job description and Biden travels at least several times a week to promote administration initiatives.
The trip to Paris is Jill Biden’s fourth solo international excursion this year.
She visited Namibia and Kenya in February, followed by a trip to London in May for the coronation of King Charles III. In June, she traveled to Jordan to attend the royal wedding of a son of King Abdullah II, followed by stops in Egypt, Morocco and Portugal.
Before flying to Paris on Sunday night, she headlined fundraisers Friday and Saturday in Massachusetts for her husband's reelection campaign. | Not_Explicit |
Israeli president promises to ‘protect and defend’ democracy in face of judicial crisis
Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday promised to “protect and defend” Israel’s democracy as it faces a crisis over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pursuit of a judicial overhaul and that has drawn unprecedented criticism from the U.S.
In a speech to a joint meeting of Congress marking Israel’s 75th anniversary, Herzog called Israeli protests against Netanyahu and his government “painful, and deeply unnerving, because it highlights the cracks within the whole.”
President Biden has urged Netanyahu to work with Herzog to reach an agreement with the political opposition to abandon some of the most controversial measures of the government’s judicial overhaul plan, which critics say would neuter the country’s Supreme Court and undermine its democracy.
“As head of state, I will continue doing everything to reach a broad public consensus, and to preserve, protect and defend the State of Israel’s democracy,” Herzog said to lawmakers.
Herzog’s visit to Washington, and his address to Congress, served as an attempt by the Biden administration to bridge the divides in his party — reinforcing Democratic support for Israel without legitimizing Netanyahu’s controversial government.
Biden spoke with Netanyahu on Monday as the Israeli president arrived in Washington and agreed to meet in the fall in the United States, but has not yet extended an explicit invitation to the White House.
Democratic divisions were apparent on Wednesday, when at least seven progressives skipped the Israeli president’s speech. They included Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Cori Bush (Mo.), Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.) and Pramila Jayapal (Wash.).
Some of those lawmakers have denounced Israel as an apartheid state and condemned Netanyahu’s government as racist – critical of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians, its settlement activity in the West Bank and saying that the judicial overhaul will worsen the situation.
Herzog addressed those statements head-on.
“I am not oblivious to criticism among friends, including some expressed by respected members of this House,” he said, adding that while respects the criticism “one does not always have to accept it,” which elicited laughs and claps in the chamber.
His remarks came one day after the House overwhelmingly approved a resolution affirming that Israel “is not a racist or apartheid state” and that the U.S. “will always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel,” while also condemning xenophobia and antisemitism.
The final vote was 412-9-1, with all opposition coming from progressive Democrats — some of whom boycotted Wednesday’s speech.
The resolution was drawn up in reaction to remarks by Jayapal, the chair of the Progressive Caucus, who, during a progressive conference in Chicago over the weekend, said that “Israel is a racist state.”
The comment drew vocal bipartisan criticism, and Jayapal later apologized, walked back her remarks and focused her criticism on the Netanyahu government.
Jayapal did not attend Herzog’s speech, with a Democratic aide saying in a statement that her absence was due to “scheduling conflicts.” She did, however, support the resolution on Tuesday.
One of the loudest applause lines came when Herzog warned that criticism of Israel should not “cross the line into negation of the State of Israel’s right to exist.”
“Questioning the Jewish people’s right to self-determination is not legitimate diplomacy, it is antisemitism,” he added.
While Herzog’s roughly 40-minute remarks were overwhelmingly celebrated by both sides of the chamber, some Republicans stayed seated while other lawmakers stood to applaud the Israeli president describing Israel as hosting “the largest and most impressive LGBTQ Pride parades.”
Still, the chamber was filled with lawmakers proclaiming support for Israel — with the U.S. and Israel working closely together to counter threats from Iran and its nuclear ambitions and advance efforts to establish ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
“Israel thanks the United States for working towards establishing peaceful relations between Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a leading nation in the region and in the Muslim world,” Herzog said.
“We pray for this moment to come. This would be a huge sea change in the course of history in the Middle East and the world at large.”
The remark received an overwhelming bipartisan standing ovation. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the ranking member on the Judiciary committee who is Jewish, held up Israel’s flag during the Israeli president’s remarks.
Herzog said that his deepest “yearning… is for Israel to one day make peace with our Palestinian neighbors” — comments that drew a bipartisan standing ovation — but called out Palestinian attacks against Israelis as undermining possibilities for a future peace.
“Notwithstanding the deep political differences, and the numerous challenges that surround Israeli-Palestinian relations — and I do not ignore them — but it should be clear that one cannot talk about peace while condoning or legitimizing terror, implicitly or explicitly. True peace cannot be anchored in violence,” he said.
Herzog thanked the U.S. for its “commitment to Israel’s security,” but noted that the relationship is a “two-way alliance, in which Israel has been making critical contributions to the national security and interests of the United States in numerous ways.”
To date, the U.S. has provided $158 billion in bilateral assistance and missile defense, according to the Congressional Research Service, although that number is not adjusted for inflation.
The former Obama administration negotiated two, 10-year agreements that provided Israel $30 billion up to 2018, and $33.8 billion between 2019 and 2028.
In 2021, Congress appropriated an additional $1 billion to restock Israel’s missile defense system, Iron Dome, but that was largely delayed over opposition from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)
Herzog is only the second Israeli president to address Congress. His father, Chaim Herzog, marked Israel’s 40th anniversary with a joint speech to Congress in 1987.
He called it “the honor of a lifetime” to follow in his father’s footsteps, and he paid notice to his other deep family roots in his speech, referencing how his grandfather, the chief rabbi of the newly established State of Israel, met with then-President Truman in the White House in 1949.
The president’s brother, Michael Herzog, is Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S.
“To us, it is clear that America is irreplaceable to Israel, and Israel is irreplaceable to America. It is time to design the next stage of our evolving friendship and our growing partnership together,” Herzog said in his speech.
“Israel and the United States will inevitably disagree on many matters. But we will always remain family.”
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Not_Explicit |
- Scores of Russians fled their homeland following the outbreak of the Ukraine war.
- Many resettled in neighboring countries such as Armenia, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan.
- The growth of such countries surged in 2022 after the arrival of these Russians, per a new report.
Hundreds of thousands of Russians who fled their homeland following the country's invasion of Ukraine have resettled in neighboring countries — and are boosting their economies.
The exodus of Russians started after many highly educated professionals — such as academics, finance, and tech workers — left Russia in the early days of the war, Insider's Jason Lalljee reported in March 2022. About six months later, there was another wave of departures after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial military mobilization for the Ukraine war on September 21.
By October 2022, about 700,000 Russians had left the country, Reuters reported citing Russian media — however, the Kremlin rejected those numbers saying it doesn't have this data.
Many of these Russians ended up in neighboring countries, setting up new lives and businesses, and ended up boosting the economies of these nations, the independent Russian media outlet Novaya Gazeta reported on Friday.
The GDP of the South Caucasus — a region comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia — grew by an outsized 7% in 2022, according to the World Bank. This far outpaced the 5.6% growth that World Bank economists had predicted.
Armenia — once known as the Silicon Valley of the Soviet Union — saw its 2022 growth spike to 12.6%, per the World Bank. The institution's economists had forecast a 7.0% growth for the country last year.
Suren Parsyan, a lecturer at the Armenian State University of Economics, told Novaya Gazeta that Armenia's growth last year was thanks to the newly arrived Russians, particularly those who work in IT.
Russians transferred about $1.75 billion to Armenia in 2022, Martin Galstyan, the country's central bank governor said in January this year, the Armenia-based NEWS.am agency reported.
Meanwhile, Georgia's GDP jumped by 10.1% in 2022, per the World Bank, beating an 8.8% growth forecast. Money transfers from Russia rose five-fold from $411 million in 2021 to $2.1 billion in 2022, according to data from Georgia's central bank.
Even Kyrgyzstan's economy grew by 7% in 2022, outpacing a 4% forecast, per the World Bank.
Turkey, a hot spot for Russia fleeing the war, saw its economy grow 5.6% in 2022, outpacing a forecast of 4.7%, per the World Bank data.
Oleg Itskhoki, an economics professor at the University of California, told Novaya Gazeta that the GDP performance in such countries demonstrates that the newly arrived Russians had savings and were wealthier than the local residents.
But to be sure, immigration hasn't only had a positive impact on the economies. The influx of Russians also contributed to a rise in inflation, such as a jump in hotel rates and rents in Kazakhstan and Georgia, Bloomberg reported in September last year. | Not_Explicit |
Richard Moore, or 'C', the man at the head of Britain's shadowy MI6 spy agency said Wednesday its doors were always open to Russians working for the Kremlin who felt uneasy about what their country was doing to Ukraine. File photo by Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA
July 19 (UPI) -- The head of the British secret intelligence service MI6 on Wednesday urged Russians who felt ashamed of serving in Vladimir Putin's regime to defect or become spies for Britain.
Richard Moore, the spy agency's chief, told Russians struggling with pangs of conscience over the war in Ukraine were encouraged to come join the service, in a speech in the Czech Republic capital, Prague.
"I invite them to do what others have already done this past 18 months and join hands with us -- our door is always open," Moore said.
"We will handle their offers of help with the discretion and professionalism for which our service is famed, their secrets will always be safe with us."
In his speech marking the 55th anniversary of the crackdown by Russian forces that ended the 1968 Prague Spring uprising in then-Czechoslovakia, Moore said he knew many Russian were torn by the "same dilemmas and the same tugs of conscience" as their forebears did back then.
He said Russians were quietly appalled to see their military "pulverizing" the cities of a "kindred country."
"They know in their hearts that Putin's case for attacking a fellow Slavic nation is fraudulent, a miasma of lies and fantasy," said Moore in the only speech he has given this year.
Regarding the short-lived mutiny by the Wagner mercenary forces of Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin in June, Moore said the compromise agreement the Russian president was forced to negotiate in order for the fighters to stand down was a "humiliation."
He said that while Prigozhin had not been seen since and his exact whereabouts remained a mystery, as far as MI6 was concerned the Wagner leader was still alive.
Under the behind-closed-doors deal, brokered in part by Belarus President Lukashenko, Prigozhin was offered safe passage out of Russia to Belarus and his forces were offered the choice of joining him there, demobilizing, or signing up with the Russian regular army.
Ukraine's border guard confirmed Wagner Group forces had arrived in Belarus as Russian President Vladimir Putin continued efforts to split the mercenaries from their leader.
However, Ukraine's State Border Service was unable to provide details saying its officers were working to gauge the numbers and location of the Wagner units arriving. | Not_Explicit |
AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Huynh Nhu started playing soccer with a coconut-like fruit for a ball as a child. Now a member of Vietnam's national team, she will captain her squad in a daunting opening match against the United States in the Women's World Cup.
The match will mark a milestone for Vietnam soccer, which is making its World Cup debut. A Vietnamese national team has never played in the men's or women's tournament.
Just making the field was an accomplishment. But now Vietnam, the 32nd-ranked women’s team in the world, faces the two-time defending tournament champions in its debut.
On paper, it seems like an incredible mismatch. Even so, Vietnamese coach Mai Duc Chung is determined to show what Vietnam can do on the global stage.
“We came here not just for tourism. We are here to play,” Mai said Friday. “The U.S. is a very, very strong team. It is like a mountain, but it doesn’t mean that we will give up. We will have very suitable tactics so that we can minimize the conceded goals.”
Vietnam qualified for the tournament through last year’s Women’s Asian Cup. The Vietnamese were knocked out in the quarterfinals by China, putting them into a round-robin playoff. They then defeated Thailand and Taiwan. Both opponents were struggling with COVID-19 issues at the time.
“We will try our best so that we can bring the image of Vietnam to the world,” Mai said. “I hope that this journey will be an inspiration for the development of Vietnamese football in the future.”
Southeast Asian soccer, especially women’s soccer, is underdeveloped compared to global powers in the sport. Vietnam's first women’s national team was formed in 1997 and Huynh is the only player who competes outside the country. She plays for Länk FC Vilaverdense in Portugal’s top soccer league.
Prior to the start of the tournament, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said each player participating in the Women's World Cup will walk away with at least $30,000 in prize money –- a bonus in developed nations but a windfall for players from countries such as Vietnam.
But then Infantino this week said he couldn’t guarantee that the member federations will distribute the payments. He said he’s still working with the federations to make that happen.
The Vietnam women’s national team members can make around $850 a month, or $10,200 a year, a ccording to the New York Times,
“We received attention from the government, from the ministry of sports and from relevant agencies,” Huynh said. “The living standards have been improved. We received the support of FIFA, so it will improve the conditions for the Vietnamese players. The amount is not small for us, particularly for the women’s players.”
Despite the increase in attention and pay, the Vietnam players are trying to treat their opening match as a normal match, with the intention of bringing pride to their home country.
“I do hope that this tournament here is endless inspiration for the children of Vietnam, for the people of Vietnam,” Huynh said.
___
Zach Allen is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.
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AP Women’s World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | Not_Explicit |
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JERUSALEM (AP) — Tens of thousands of protesters marched into Jerusalem on Saturday evening and hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in Tel Aviv and other cities in a last-ditch show of force aimed at blocking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul.
Also Saturday, more than 100 of Israel’s former security chiefs signed a letter pleading with the Israeli premier to halt the legislation, and thousands of additional military reservists said they would no longer report for duty, in a protest against the plan.
In scorching heat that reached 33 C (91 F), the procession into Jerusalem turned the city’s main entrance into a sea of blue and white Israeli flags as marchers completed the last leg of a four-day, 70-kilometer (45-mile) trek from Tel Aviv to Israel’s parliament.
The marchers, who grew from hundreds to thousands as the march progressed, were welcomed in Jerusalem by throngs of cheering protesters before they set up camp in rows of small white tents outside the Knesset, or parliament, before Monday’s expected vote. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands flooded the streets of the coastal city of Tel Aviv, the country’s business and cultural capital, as well as in Beersheba, Haifa and Netanya.
Netanyahu and his far-right allies claim the overhaul is needed to curb what they say are the excessive powers of unelected judges. But their critics say the plan will destroy the country’s system of checks and balances and put it on the path toward authoritarian rule.
U.S. President Joe Biden has urged Netanyahu to halt the plan and seek a broad consensus.
The proposed overhaul has drawn harsh criticism from business and medical leaders, and a fast-rising number of military reservists in key units have said they will stop reporting for duty if the plan passes, raising concern that the country’s security interests could be threatened. An additional 10,000 reservists announced they were suspending duty on Saturday night, according to “Brothers in Arms,” a protest group representing retired soldiers.
READ MORE: Netanyahu’s planned judicial overhaul divides Israeli military
More than 100 top former security chiefs, including retired military commanders, police commissioners and heads of intelligence agencies, joined those calls on Saturday, signing a letter to Netanyahu blaming him for compromising Israel’s military and urging him to halt the legislation.
The signatories included Ehud Barak, a former Israeli prime minister, and Moshe Yaalon, a former army chief and defense minister. Both are political rivals of Netanyahu.
“The legislation is crushing those things shared by Israeli society, is tearing the people apart, disintegrating the IDF and inflicting fatal blows on Israel’s security,” the former officials wrote.
“The legislative process violates the social contract that has existed for 75 years between the Israeli government and thousands of reserve officers and soldiers from the land, air, sea and intelligence branches who have volunteered for many years for the reserves to defend the democratic state of Israel, and now announce with a broken heart that they are suspending their volunteer service,” the letter said.
Israel Katz, a senior Cabinet minister from Netanyahu’s Likud party, said the bill would pass one way or another on Monday.
“I represent citizens who are not ready to have their voice canceled because of threats of refusal to serve” or by those blocking the airport, highways and train stations, he told Channel 12 TV. “There is a clear attempt here to use military service to force the government to change policy.”
After seven straight months of the most sustained and intense demonstrations the country has ever seen, the grassroots protest movement has reached a fever pitch.
The parliament is expected to vote Monday on a measure that would limit the Supreme Court’s oversight powers by preventing judges from striking down government decisions on the basis that they are “unreasonable.”
Proponents say the current “reasonability” standard gives the judges excessive powers over decision making by elected officials. But critics say that removing the standard, which is invoked only in rare cases, would allow the government to pass arbitrary decisions, make improper appointments or firings and open the door to corruption.
Monday’s vote would mark the first major piece of legislation to be approved.
The overhaul also calls for other sweeping changes aimed at curbing the powers of the judiciary, from limiting the Supreme Court’s ability to challenge parliamentary decisions, to changing the way judges are selected.
Protesters, who make up a wide swath of Israeli society, see the overhaul as a power grab fueled by various personal and political grievances by Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges, and his partners, who want to deepen Israel’s control of the occupied West Bank and perpetuate controversial draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men.
In a speech Thursday, Netanyahu doubled down on the overhaul and dismissed as absurd the accusations that the plan would destroy Israel’s democratic foundations.
“This is an attempt to mislead you over something that has no basis in reality,” he said. Alarmed by the growing mass of reservists refusing to serve, the country’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, pushed for a delay in Monday’s vote, according to reports in Israeli media. It was unclear if others would join him.
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Former President Donald Trump and his allies are already scheming up plans to significantly expand his presidential power if he wins back the White House next year.
The New York Times reported on Monday that Trump and his inner circle have a "broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president's authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him."
This wide-ranging plan would include bringing independent agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency directly under the president, the return of "impounding" funds — a strategy banned during the Nixon administration that empowered a president to refuse to spend Congressionally-allocated money on programs they dislike — as well as the removal of employment protections for thousands of career civil servants and an intelligence agency purge of officials he holds personal vendettas against and has deemed to be "deep staters" and "the sick political class that hates our country."
"We will demolish the deep state," Trump said at a rally in Michigan. "We will expel the warmongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists. And we will throw off the sick political class that hates our country."
Under Trump's plan — which was drafted during his first term — independent agencies would be required to submit actions to the president for review, in an effort to consolidate such organizations "under presidential authority." The order was ultimately not enacted due to internal concerns such as how the market would react if the Federal Reserve was stripped of its independence.
"What we're trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them," Russell Vought, who headed the Office of Management and Budget during Trump's administration, told the Times. Open discussion of such political strategies is rife in Trump's rallies and campaign websites, according to the report, a tactic Vought described as planting "a flag" ahead of the election.
Vought added that "at the bare minimum," the Federal Reserve should be subject to presidential review. "It's very hard to square the Fed's independence with the Constitution," he told the Times.
Former White House personnel chief John McEntee, who is credited with initiating Trump's 2020 efforts to expel officials he personally opposed, also did not mince words regarding the ex-president's scheme.
"The president's plan should be to fundamentally reorient the federal government in a way that hasn't been done since F.D.R.'s New Deal," McEntee said. "Our current executive branch was conceived of by liberals for the purpose of promulgating liberal policies. There is no way to make the existing structure function in a conservative manner. It's not enough to get the personnel right. What's necessary is a complete system overhaul."
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung observed that Trump has "laid out a bold and transparent agenda for his second term, something no other candidate has done."
"Voters will know exactly how President Trump will supercharge the economy, bring down inflation, secure the border, protect communities and eradicate the deep state that works against Americans once and for all," he added.
But former White House chief of staff John Kelly said he felt the strategy would be "chaotic" because Trump would "continually be trying to exceed his authority but the sycophants would go along with it. It would be a nonstop gunfight with the Congress and the courts."
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Experts raised major concerns over Trump's "alarming" plot.
"Anyone who opposes a Presidential autocracy in America should read this closely," warned presidential historian Michael Beschloss.
"The conservatives who are pushing this should imagine for one second the panic they would express if Biden did it," tweeted national security attorney Bradley Moss.
"In 2024, authoritarianism—unchecked, unembarrassed and undisguised—will be on the ballot," wrote Bill Kristol, a longtime NeverTrump conservative and founder of The Weekly Standard.
"Be afraid. This is on the verge of happening 18 months from now," tweeted MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan. "Now ask yourself this question: are cautious, in-denial, business-as-usual establishment Dems equipped, or even willing, to address this anti-democratic, autocratic threat?" | Not_Explicit |
Gaetz says he’ll offer bill to defund Jack Smith investigations of Trump
Gaetz made the announcement hours after Trump said he’d been notified he is a target of the Justice Department’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Smith is leading the investigation.
“They are attacking our democracy and engaging in election interference right now,” said Gaetz, who vowed to “defund the Jack Smith investigation.”
He also alleged the investigation lacks transparency, saying the Justice Department has been nonresponsive to his request for information about who is on Smith’s team.
Gaetz sits on the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the committee’s chairman, has threatened to cut funding for the Justice Department and FBI, alleging those agencies have been “weaponized” for political purposes.
After Trump was indicted in the investigation into documents found at his Mar-a-Lago home — another investigation Smith is leading — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) called for defunding Smith’s office.
Gaetz said he knows President Biden (D) would not sign his proposal into law and that Senate Majority Leader “Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.] would never bring such a thing up.”
“But you deserve to know where your members of Congress are counted. Will they cosponsor my legislation? I certainly hope they will,” he said.
If Trump is indicted in the Jan. 6 investigation, it would be his third indictment this year and his second on federal charges. Trump has pleaded not guilty in the other indictments. One stemmed from charges in Manhattan related to an alleged hush money scheme, and the other was in the Smith-led case related to Trump’s holding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump said in a statement Tuesday the various investigations are a “witch hunt” and “all about election interference” in all caps.
A spokesman for Smith’s office declined to comment.
This story was updated at 11:10 a.m.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Not_Explicit |
'Nontheistic' nonprofit calls for Bible ban in Leon schools, citing Moms for Liberty efforts
The Freedom from Religion Foundation, which describes itself as a nontheistic nonprofit, is giving Leon County School District an ultimatum: Ban the Bible or stop banning books altogether.
In an email sent to school board members on July 14, Freedom from Religion foundation piled onto a recent successful effort by the local chapter of conservative group Moms for Liberty to pull five books found in Leon County high schools.
"We are disturbed that the district has chosen to start removing books from school libraries based oncontent taken out of context at the request of extremist groups like Moms for Liberty," foundation Staff Attorney Christopher Line said in the published email to the district.
Following prodding from Moms for Liberty Leon chapter, Leon County Schools Superintendent Rocky Hanna announced on July 10 that five books would be removed from high school libraries.
"Of these 468,000-plus books that we have in our current catalog, if we come across those we deem are in violation of state statute, we will remove them immediately... These are black-and-white, cut-and-dry, need-to-be removed," Hanna said.
The five books were not removed in a formal hearing process, instead they were reviewed by Hanna and removed without a hearing from members of the public.
"We don't believe any books should be banned, including the Bible," Line told the Tallahassee Democrat in an interview. "In cases like this where a school district appears to be using a footpath to discriminate, we demand that they apply that equally across the board to all books that have sexually explicit content, including the Bible."
Freedom from Religion says the Bible should be banned based on the same reasoning Moms for Liberty presented in their request; "sexually explicit content."
"We write to request that the District either ban the bible based on the criterion of 'sexually explicitcontent' it has used to ban these books, or cease banning books and return the banned books to schoolshelves," Line wrote in the email.
The chair of of Leon County's Moms for Liberty chapter is not surprised by Freedom from Religion's request.
"Those who would prematurely sexualize other people’s children in schools, also do not want children exposed to The Bible," Priscilla West told the Tallahassee Democrat. "I don't foresee LCS Board members taking a stand to remove the Bible from school libraries, but even if they did, would it make any difference in the children's daily educational experience?"
"Happily, in this country The Bible would still be widely available outside of schools to all who choose to enrich themselves with its wisdom."
Leon County School District spokesperson Chris Petley told the Tallahassee Democrat on Monday that no comment would be available on the matter until the board reviews the request. The next school board meeting will be 2 p.m. July 24 to discuss the first official book challenge hearing of "I am Billie Jean King" by Brad Meltzer.
Not the first Bible challenge
While the Bible has been challenged and reviewed across the state in school districts, it has never been banned.
Chaz Stevens, a political activist from Deerfield Beach, sent 62 superintendents in Florida a request in April 2022 to ban the Bible, making it the first official complaint for Leon County Schools. This came on the heels of Gov. Ron DeSantis signing HB 1467 into law on March 28, 2022.
The law allows parents of students to review learning materials and contest them if they're considered inappropriate.
"My goal is to use the law as our expert politicians in Tallahassee intended," Stevens said last year. "There were no carve outs for religious texts, so I would assume they meant for them to be in play.”
The School Board quickly dismissed Stevens' challenge.
The latest challenge comes days after Barry Silver, an outspoken civil rights activist, challenged the Bible in Palm Beach County for containing, "misogyny, violence, sexual conduct, rape, incest, animal cruelty, abuse, anti-Semitism, anti-science and indoctrination."
"The Bible has this elevated, sacrosanct status that it cannot be evaluated. That's really dangerous," Silver told the Palm Beach Post last week. "If you're going to have these laws, then you have to do it in an even-handed fashion. You can't just get rid of books you don't like and consider others to be above critical review."
The Bible was submitted for review in Brevard County Public Schools in May, along with nearly 300 other books, by an anonymous person who claimed it and other books broke state statutes. However, school board members did not see the Bible as an issue and decided to keep it on the shelves.
Last fall, the Bible was temporarily removed from shelves in Escambia County, Florida, for review amid more than 100 other books that were on a list the district maintains. The district swiftly returned the book to classroom and library shelves.
In June, a parent in Utah, backed by Freedom from Religion, submitted a complaint about the Bible in the Davis School District, citing passages describing sex and violence. The district placed the Bible under review and ultimately decided to remove it from elementary and middle school libraries for containing "vulgarity or violence." The decision is being appealed by another parent.
Tallahassee Democrat writer Alaijah Brown can be reached at [email protected]. | Not_Explicit |
On the night of June 9, 2023, there should have been no one on the streets of Tobruk, a coastal city in eastern Libya. A few days earlier, a curfew had been imposed, so that the authorities could launch an operation against criminal groups trafficking in people and drugs.
But that same night, a fishing boat called the Adriana set sail clandestinely from the beach, without being stopped. At least 750 men, women and children were packed on board. This is the ship that, five days later, on June 14, sank near the coastal town of Pylos, in Greek territorial waters, leaving only 104 survivors.
An EL PAÍS investigation in collaboration with Lighthouse Reports, Reporters United, Monitor, SIRAJ and Der Spiegel has identified the migrant smuggling network that organized the trip. Evidence has been found that closely links this mafia to Khalifa Hafter, the powerful warlord who dominates eastern Libya. Certain European states have also been involved in negotiations with Hafter to stop irregular immigration.
Days after the sinking of the Adriana, another EL PAÍS investigation – conducted in collaboration with the same partners – revealed the efforts of the Greek Coast Guard to hide the role that it played in the incident. The Greek Naval Court opened an investigation to determine the possible responsibility of the Coast Guard, but so far, no action has been taken against those involved. In fact, the only arrests to date are of nine Egyptian men in a separate investigation of the human smuggling ring that organized this deadly journey. Those arrested are accused of six crimes, including illegal trafficking of foreigners, belonging to a criminal organization and reckless homicide due to negligence. They are currently in pretrial detention.
The Greek Ministry of Maritime Affairs has not responded to this newspaper’s questions about the case. The ministry’s press office has only said that there’s “a strictly confidential criminal investigation” taking place, “in accordance with the guidelines of the Supreme Civil and Criminal Court.”
However, the sources and documents that EL PAÍS and Lighthouse Reports have had access to reveal that the Adriana’s journey isn’t an isolated event. Rather, it’s merely one incident within the flourishing criminal activity of migrant smuggling that originates from the eastern coast of Libya. Those responsible for the smuggling are under the protection of the Hafter family.
Up to 17 survivors of the shipwreck have given their testimony. Several of them have provided the names of the traffickers involved in organizing the trip from Tobruk. Of the mobsters mentioned, none sailed with them on the ship. Some were originally from eastern Libya and have ties to the naval forces in that area of the country.
Among the names of the criminals, one was mentioned more than the rest: Muhammad Saad Al-Kahshi Al-Mnfi. Up to three different sources identify him as an essential figure in the human trafficking operation: a survivor, a lower-ranking trafficker and another source with inside information. “He’s the one who issued the license that allowed the boat to navigate Libyan waters,” says the survivor of the shipwreck, who asked to remain anonymous.
Al-Kahshi works for a special naval unit known as the “frogmen.” The unit is led by Bahar Al-Tawati Al-Mnfi, one of his relatives. He, in turn, is under the direct orders of Khalifa Hafter, according to the source. This witness also explains that all the boat trips take place “under the supervision of Saddam Hafter, the son of Khalifa Hafter.” The importance of the frogmen is that no ship can enter or leave Libyan beaches and ports without the approval of this unit. “Either Saddam himself leads the operation, or he assigns it to one of the frogmen battalions,” the source explains. The Libyan Coast Guard receives money in exchange for turning off the radar systems that detect the movement of ships, thus facilitating the exit of clandestine vessels.
“The ship that sank in Greece set sail from Egypt, crossed Libyan territorial waters to Tobruk and set sail again from that Libyan city. These kinds of things are only possible if the Hafter-controlled [Libyan Navy] agrees,” emphasizes Jalel Harchaoui, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a UK-based security think tank.
Five survivors of the shipwreck – who flew from Syria to Libya to board the fishing boat in Tobruk – have described how easy it was for them to get out of the military airfield in Benghazi, the main city in eastern Libya, thanks to the help of commanding officers. “At the airport, a person took my passport, went to the immigration office, put a stamp on it and took us outside,” one of the survivors recalls. On the night of the Adriana’s departure – amidst a curfew – other survivors say that they, along with hundreds of other passengers, were taken without incident to a small bay near Wadi Arzouka, east of Tobruk. From there, they boarded the fishing boat.
The Hafter family
Khalifa Hafter controls the eastern territories of Libya, which has become a failed state. Different parts of the country have been controlled by various factions since the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and, with him, the regime’s apparatus.
After years of internal struggles, there are two groups that control the majority of the territory. In the west, the Government of National Unity – sponsored by the United Nations – is in charge. In the east, a war took place between 2014 and 2017 that pitted Hafter and his allies against several political opponents. The field marshal won, becoming the closest thing to a head of state in the east. “All the armed actors [in the east] have to report to Hafter in some way, because he has the ability to project power in most of the region,” Harchaoui says. “Hafter can’t say he doesn’t know what’s going on. He cannot say that he is not involved.”
Pablo Sapag – a researcher in armed conflicts at the Complutense University of Madrid – indicates that Libya’s is currently experiencing a reduction in violence due to the fact that the armed groups have reached an agreement, dividing up ports, oil fields, human trafficking routes and other lucrative assets and activities. “During the period of great military instability in Libya, between 2012 and 2018, it was more difficult to traffic people, due to security conditions,” Sapag clarifies. “But since 2021 and 2022, the number of trafficking victims has skyrocketed.”
The European connection
These findings raise serious questions about the immigration prevention policies of several member states of the European Union (EU), which, in the past, have made agreements with the National Unity Government in the west of Libya. But now, they’ve started talks with Hafter.
It’s well known to the EU that the authorities in eastern Libya profit from migrant smuggling. An internal document from the German government shows that EU officials were informed months ago about the increase in outflows from eastern Libya, describing it as “a lucrative source of revenue for the eastern Libyan rulers involved.” And, at the beginning of June, Ylva Johansson – the EU commissioner for Home Affairs – declared that the European Commission had indications that criminal elements were part of Libya’s Coast Guard. However, a spokesperson for the European Commission explains that the institution “does not have the mandate to carry out investigations or conclusively establish the facts” in this case. “Commissioner Johansson made [was referencing] the report by the UN-appointed independent human rights investigators, published in March,” the spokesperson told EL PAÍS via email.
Despite this evidence, the EU provides Libya with resources and training, even though it has no way of controlling where these funds go. And, while the EU has a representative in Tripoli, it doesn’t have the capacity to impose its authority throughout the country. “It’s very difficult [to know if the funds are being used well],” Sapag laments. “You cannot ask a militia to give you an invoice to guarantee if they’ve intercepted migrant boats and how many there have been. It’s absolutely impossible. Obviously, the money is going to be wasted on many other things.”
In recent months, Italy and Malta have entered into talks with Hafter, for the purpose of combating irregular migration. In May of 2023, Hafter met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. In June, Italian Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi declared that Hafter’s people were willing to collaborate to stop clandestine exits.
“This is a very clear admission of how Italy intends to operate and what [Meloni’s government] has promised Hafter: ‘If you reduce the volumes of people smuggling, we as a nation will inject capital, because we know you’re busy rebuilding Benghazi,’” Harchaoui details. “Perhaps a percentage of that money will actually go to rebuild Benghazi… but there is another percentage that will go to all kinds of other activities,” the expert warns.
But Italy isn’t the only European player that has dealings with Hafter. That same month, a delegation from Malta traveled to Benghazi for the first time to meet with the Libyan strongman and discuss the region’s security challenges, with particular emphasis on irregular migration. In addition, internal EU documents seen by this newspaper and its partners reveal that the Commission is looking for ways to stop arrivals from Benghazi airport, with the help of local operators.
Involvement in summary expulsions
Hafter-backed militias aren’t only involved in human trafficking operations: they’re also actively involved in the illegal expulsion of migrant boats that have already reached European waters. At least two pushbacks occurred in May and July of this year – one of them in Maltese waters – involving a militia named Tariq Bin Ziyad, which is controlled by Saddam Hafter.
Crew member Jacob reflects on the shocking interception of a distress case by the Libyan militia vessel TAREQ BIN ZEYAD last week. They made fun of #Seabird while we witnessed them executing an illegal pushback of ~250 people despite the Maltese Armed Forces telling them not to. pic.twitter.com/HJQodkmggy— Sea-Watch International (@seawatch_intl) July 10, 2023
Four of the people who died in the major Mediterranean shipwreck in June were also on the other ship that was captured by this militia on May 25, according to the relatives of the victims. The father of one of them has provided the WhatsApp messages that his son sent him, which prove this: “Dad, we’ve been at sea for six days and we may not reach our destination. The ship has broken down and the Libyan coast guards have captured us.” In a second message, he tells him: “We couldn’t get there, our ship was out at sea, near Greece, but there were problems and breakdowns. The Libyan Coast Guard –the Tariq Bin Ziyad battalion, which belongs to Benghazi – dragged us for three days. Now, we’re close to the port. When we’re connected to the internet, you will receive this message.” This boy and his companions spent eight days in prison and were later released. The three were on the fishing boat that sank near Pylos a month later. They are still missing.
Meanwhile, mounting evidence indicates that the nine Egyptians who remain in jail on suspicion of being responsible for the shipwreck are nothing more than scapegoats. In separate interviews with relatives of four of these men, all have stated that they were passengers, not smugglers. Three relatives have provided evidence, including screenshots of conversations related to expenses. Apparently, the family members of these men paid for their passage on the ship. This indicates that it’s highly unlikely that they were involved in organizing the trip or in the smuggling ring.
The investigation conducted by EL PAÍS and Lighthouse Reports has verified the identity of one of the traffickers. He asked one of those arrested to pay him money for the trip. He also gave information about trip rates to a reporter from this investigation, who posed as a passenger. First, he asked for 4,500 Libyan dinars – about 850 euros, or $935. He then asked the undercover reporter for his nationality. When he answered that he’s Egyptian, the price was lowered to 160 dinars, or about 30 euros ($35). “The rate is different for Egyptians,” the trafficker explained.
Likewise, the comparison of testimonies from witnesses reveals that they were manipulated by the smugglers. Oftentimes, on forms – which were filled out individually – the answers to questions about the smugglers are identical. Meanwhile, those who were questioned by the Greek Coast Guard say that they were pressured to blame the nine Egyptians, who were later framed and arrested. One survivor recounts how he told the police that the real smugglers had perished in the shipwreck, but later changed his version: “They held me until 10 pm, when they finished the interrogations with the other [survivors]. They came back to me and told me that everyone else had testified against them (the Egyptians). I was tired, so I told them what they wanted to hear,” he admits.
Mohannad Najar, Eman El-Sherbiny, Felix Kesssler, Klaas van Dijken, Lina Verschwele, Janine Louloudi, Maud Jullien, Mohammed Bassiki, Muriel Kalisch, Sara Creta and Steffen Lüdke contributed to this story.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition | Not_Explicit |
WASHINGTON -- FBI employees wrongly searched foreign surveillance data for the last names of a U.S. senator and a state senator, according to a court opinion released Friday. The disclosure could further complicate Biden administration efforts to renew a major spy program that already faces bipartisan opposition in Congress.
Another FBI employee improperly queried the Social Security number of a state judge who alleged civil rights violations by a municipal chief of police, according to the opinion by the chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
News of the latest violations comes as the Biden administration faces a difficult battle in persuading Congress to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows spy agencies to collect swaths of emails and other communications.
Already this year, U.S. spy officials have disclosed that the FBI improperly searched Section 702 databases for information related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and the 2020 protests following the police killing of George Floyd.
U.S. officials say Section 702 enables their highest priority work on China, Russia and threats like terrorism and cybersecurity. But many Democratic and Republican lawmakers say they won't vote to renew Section 702 when it expires at this year's end without major changes targeting how the FBI uses foreign surveillance data to investigate Americans.
Democrats who have long demanded new limits on the FBI's access to surveillance have increasingly been joined by Republicans angry about the bureau's investigations of former President Donald Trump as well as errors and omissions made during the probe of Russian ties to his 2016 campaign.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement that reforms at the bureau had led to “significant improvement” and fewer incidents of not following intelligence rules.
"We take seriously our role in protecting national security and we take just as seriously our responsibility to be good stewards of our Section 702 authorities," Wray said. "We will continue to focus on using our Section 702 authorities to protect American lives and keeping our Homeland safe, while safeguarding civil rights and liberties.”
The surveillance court opinion released Friday didn't disclose the names, states or party affiliations of the people whose names were searched. It said the searches of the state senator and U.S. senator occurred in June 2022. According to the court opinion, the analyst who did the searches had information that a foreign spy service was targeting the lawmakers. But the Justice Department's national security division reviewed the searches and found that they didn't meet FBI standards, the opinion stated.
The state judge's Social Security number was searched that October. It was later determined that the analyst did not have sufficient evidence to conduct the search and did not clear the search with higher-ups as required of politically sensitive searches, according to a senior FBI official who briefed reporters Friday on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the agency.
The unnamed U.S. senator has been notified of the search, but the state senator and state judge have not, the FBI official said.
The FBI gets a section of foreign surveillance data collected primarily by the National Security Agency, U.S. officials have said. Unlike the NSA and CIA, which go after intelligence targets abroad, the FBI is responsible for investigating threats affecting the U.S. such as cyberattacks or attempts to influence or interfere in American elections.
There are strict rules governing when analysts can search for U.S. citizens or businesses in surveillance data. Facing pressure from the surveillance court and Congress, the FBI in recent years has changed its search tools, ramped up training for analysts working with foreign data, and required new approvals from higher-ups for larger searches or sensitive searches like the names of public officials.
The FBI last month also announced new disciplinary measures. Any employees accused of negligence would immediately lose access to surveillance data until they undergo training and meet with a bureau attorney. The actions revealed Friday predate the new disciplinary policy.
Judge Rudolph Contreras' opinion, which was completed in April 2023 and released Friday with redactions, says “there is reason to believe that the FBI has been doing a better job in applying the querying standard.” Of nearly 80,000 searches audited over a 16-month period ending in December 2022, 1.8% were found to have not met internal standards, the court said.
The total number of searches for Americans appears to have dropped as well. Over a year-long period ending in March, the FBI ran about 180,000 searches of U.S. citizens and other American entities, the court said.
That's well below the roughly 2 million searches reported just between December 2020 and February 2021, something Contreras wrote “should indicate less intrusion into the private communications of U.S. persons.” | Not_Explicit |
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Sunday defended former President Donald Trump, who faces a special counsel investigation regarding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol protests.
The biotech entrepreneur, during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," responded to being slammed for not criticizing Trump a month before the first GOP presidential debate in Milwaukee.
"I’ve been consistent all along,"he said, "that I would have made different judgments than Donald Trump made – that is why I’m running in this race for the presidency – the same race that he’s in. Because I would have made different and, I believe, better judgments for the country."
"But a bad judgment is not the same thing as a crime," Ramaswamy continued. "And when we conflate the two, that sets a dangerous precedent for this country. I don’t want to see us become some banana republic where the party in power uses police force to arrest its political opponents."
"Now that I’m third in the national polls, self-interestedly it would be much easier for me to win this election if Trump were not the front-runner – if Trump were eliminated by the federal administrative police state. But that’s not the right thing for the country," he added.
In a recent Fox News survey of Iowa Republicans, Trump received 46% support among likely Iowa GOP caucus goers, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis received 16% and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., received 11%. Ramaswamy came in fourth, polling at 6%.
In South Carolina, another recent Fox News poll found Trump leading by more than 30 points. Ramaswamy came in sixth place in that poll at just 3%.
Ramaswamy contended that he was "not running against anyone," including rival GOP presidential candidates and Democrat President Biden, stressing that he was running for the "vision of what it means to be American."
"We don’t want a super PAC puppet," Ramaswamy said. "We want an independent voice, and a patriot who actually speaks the truth. That’s’ what I’m bringing to the race."
In a past book, Ramaswamy argued that Trump wrongfully claimed he did not lose the 2020 election and raised millions of dollars off his supporters, "Fox News Sunday" host Shannon Bream noted. "What Trump did last week was wrong. Downright abhorrent. Plain and simple," Ramaswamy previously tweeted on Jan. 12, 2021. "I’ve said it before and did so in my piece."
During the appearance, Ramaswamy responded to Trump’s recent comments describing Chinese President Xi Jinping as "brilliant" and "an iron fist." Ramaswamy said Xi "is a dictator, and China is the top threat that the United States faces," arguing that he stands apart from other 2024 candidates, including Trump, in campaigning for "economic independence" from China.
Ramaswamy said he also has laid out a foreign policy plan based on pulling apart the China-Russian alliance.
"NATO was created to deter the USSR. The USSR does not exist anymore, yet NATO has expanded more after the fall of the USSR than it ever did during the USSR’s existence. So I think we have to ask the question of, ‘What advances American interests?’" Ramaswamy said. "And to me, the top American interest is pulling apart the China-Russia alliance – that ends the Ukraine war, that stops us from having to fund another hundreds of billions of dollars to protect somebody else’s border that we could be using to protect our own border. And more importantly, this is also how we deter Xi Jinping from going after Taiwan." | Not_Explicit |
President Biden is expected to sign a proclamation Tuesday designating locations associated withas a national monument on what would have been his 82nd birthday, recognizing the impact of his killing on the civil rights movement.
Graball Landing in Mississippi, the Tallahatchie River location where the brutally beaten body of 14-year-oldwas discovered in 1955, will soon be one of three sites designated as a national monument in his honor, CBS News has learned.
The White House is expected to announce the river site, the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse and the Robert Temple church in Chicago as part of a national monument, recognizing both the history of racial violence and the need for legal justice. Till's mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, is also being honored with the monument.
Brent Leggs, who helped secure the designation, hopes it will draw attention to approximately 5,000 additional Black historic sites across the United States that require approximately half a billion dollars for preservation.
"It isn't for our nation to remain stuck in a painful past. It really is to challenge our nation to say, 'we can do better,'" Leggs said.
The memory of Emmett Till remains imprinted on the banks of the Tallahatchie River.
"This landscape holds memory of one of the most painful moments in American history," said Leggs. The site serves as a grim reminder of the violent and threatening environment faced by Black youth in American society during that era.
Nearly 70 years later, Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., Till's cousin, still remembers the fateful summer of 1955 when they traveled from Chicago to visit relatives in the Mississippi Delta. On their trip, the cousins visited Bryant's Grocery Store, owned by Roy and Carolyn Bryant. Till's innocent act of whistling at Carolyn Bryant, a White woman, resulted in fatal consequences.
"That's a death sentence," Parker said.
Days later, armed with guns, Roy Bryant and his brother J.W. Milam found the family at their home.
"I heard 'em talkin, 'You got two boys here from Chicago?'" Parker said. "I said, 'God, we're getting ready to die.' Shaking like a leaf on the tree. I closed my eyes to be shot but they didn't shoot me. They came to take Emmett. That's what they did."
Till was abducted from his relative's home, tortured and shot before his lifeless body was dumped in the Tallahatchie River.
The images of Till's beaten and bruised body appeared in Black-owned newspapers and magazines across the country, thanks to the efforts of the Black press, which played a crucial role in exposing racial disparities.
Mamie Till-Mobley, Till's mother, held an open casket funeral at Roberts Temple in Chicago, where nearly 50,000 people paid their respects. The public viewing of Till's disfigured face is considered a catalyst for the civil rights movement.
"She allowed the world to see what she saw when she opened that box that they shipped from in Mississippi: the face of racial hatred and racism in America," said Marvel Parker, Wheeler Parker's wife.
The Parkers are focused on restoring the 100-year-old church building, which requires approximately $20 million for full restoration.
At the Tallahatchie County Courthouse, restored to its 1955 appearance, Patrick Weems facilitates tours, reminding visitors of the battle between racial violence and legal injustice that took place there.
It was at that courthouse that an all-White male jury acquitted Bryant and Milam for Till's murder. Months later, the brothers confessed their crime to a magazine, but were never held accountable.
"There was a battle here. There's a battle of the souls of this nation about what was gonna win out. Are they gonna say segregation is right and what the murderers did was OK? Or is justice going to prevail? And that day — we all lost," Weems said.
for more features. | Not_Explicit |
Mayor Adams kicked off his new live radio show Sunday, saying on air that he wanted to use the call-in program to talk directly to residents as just “an ordinary cat” who runs the city.
During the 30-minute morning show on WBLS, Adams chatted about issues like public safety and diversity, noting his recent appointment of the city’s first Hispanic police commissioner.
Edward Caban was sworn in last week as the city’s top cop, succeeding Keechant Sewell, who was the first woman to run the NYPD and who resigned in June.
“I needed to continue that legacy,” Adams said on the radio program. “We are just really proud of what we’re doing and how we are really diversifying government.
“Over and over again ... you hear me say ‘first time ever done, record levels.’ That’s what this administration is about,” Adams said.
In office for 19 months, Adams joins his predecessors in engaging live radio callers. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio took questions live on weekly radio shows as did former mayors Mike Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani.
“I want people to hear directly from me,” Adams said.
“You just got an ordinary cat as the mayor. I’m one of you. I am part of the community I came up in,” he said.
Inside NYC Politics
While previous mayors often faced challenging radio callers, the small handful who phoned in to Adams’ first show lobbed softball questions about issues like the city budget.
Adams responded by touting his administration’s efforts from trimming city spending to screening for dyslexia in public schools.
“When you dig into the crevices of this administration, you see that you have a mayor that has gone through a lot. Now he’s helping people that are going through a lot,” Adams said.
A caller from Queens said he was confused by the MTA’s newly announced proposed base fare hike to $2.90, saying he didn’t understand why it didn’t just jump to $3 and asking why the transit system needed more money if it’s offering free bus rides.
Gov. Kathy Hochul last week announced a pilot program of fare free bus routes, one in each borough, by late September. Her office said the routes were chosen based on such factors as ridership, fare evasion, service and equity for low-income communities.
Saying he rides the subways “all the time,” Adams said his administration has added police officers and mental health professionals to help make the subway system safer.
The live show on WBLS is set to air “semi-regularly” and include guests as well, according to City Hall. | Not_Explicit |
US Ambassador on Russia's Strikes on Ports: Russia Escalates Its War on Ukrainians
Monday, 24 July 2023
US Ambassador to Kyiv, Bridget Brink, has commented on the Russian attack on Ukraine's port infrastructure.
According to Brink, "Russia again escalated its war on Ukrainians, their livelihoods, and global food security."
"While Russia's attacks on ports and grain storage strike another blow to Ukraine and the world's most vulnerable, we will continue supporting Ukraine in exporting food to those who need it," Brink promised on Twitter.
Russia again escalated its war on Ukrainians, their livelihoods, and global food security. While Russia's attacks on ports and grain storage strike another blow to Ukraine and the world's most vulnerable, we will continue supporting Ukraine in exporting food to those who need it. pic.twitter.com/gX1zEdYyxj
Earlier, the Ukrainian operational command South reported that on the night of July 24, Russian forces launched another strike on the Odesa region. According to Ukrainian military data, Russia targetted the Danube's port infrastructure.
As a result, the attack destroyed a warehouse containing grain and damaged tanks for storing other types of cargo. A fire broke out in one of the production facilities and was promptly extinguished.
Oleh Kiper, Head of Odesa Oblast Military Administration, informed that six port workers were affected during the attack. Four of them were admitted to the oblast hospital, one of whom is in a moderate to serious condition.
If you notice an error, select the required text and press Ctrl + Enter to report it to the editors. | Not_Explicit |
The future is electric for the cars on our roads, but is the UK ready for such a major change?
At the risk of infuriating all you petrolheads out there, let's just get it out there - electric cars are the future.
They are clean, quiet, fun to drive and help us tackle the biggest challenge of our era, climate change.
But there are some big bumps along the road to the UK's electric destiny.
Electric vehicles (EVs) are expensive, there aren't enough chargers, and the switchover could destroy one of the UK's biggest industries.
There is pressure on both the Conservatives and Labour to review their climate commitments following the Tories' surprise win in the Uxbridge by-election - where the upcoming extension of London's Ultra Low Emission Zone was one of the big issues.
But the government is currently sticking to its plan - supported by Labour - to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. Sales of hybrid cars will be stopped from 2035.
So, can we meet the target?
Electric cars are selling fast, but are not without controversy. Justin Rowlatt, the BBC's climate editor, explores if the UK is on track to hit the government's targets to stop emitting greenhouse gases by 2050.
Watch on BBC One at 20:00 BST on Tuesday 25 July, and afterwards on BBC iPlayer
Let's start with the price, because EVs are still very expensive.
The cheapest EV on sale in the UK with a decent range will set you back north of £30,000.
That's significantly more than an equivalent petrol or diesel car.
However, there are much cheaper electric cars in the pipeline.
The talk of the Shanghai Motor Show in April wasn't some new sports car but a super-cheap new EV called the Seagull.
Manufactured by BYD, the Chinese battery and car behemoth, the basic Seagull has a 190-mile range and a list price in China of 78,000 yen (£8,400).
It will be a while before you can buy one, though. The company currently has no plans to sell the Seagull in the UK.
The world is racing to get a piece of the electric car market and the minerals - lithium, nickel, cobalt - packed into EV batteries are currently in short supply.
That makes them expensive, and it is likely to be some time before new mineral supplies become more widely available.
Meanwhile, the UK government has stopped offering grants to help EV buyers.
Apart from the cost, the other main reasons people give for not going electric are fears about range and charging.
And, with a growing market like EVs, perceptions are as important as reality.
If people believe electric cars are unreliable that is a huge problem.
When Times columnist Giles Coren wrote about how his expensive electric car died during a family holiday it became his most commented-on article.
He described how his wife and children had to "strike out on foot across the fields in the driving rain and gathering darkness" while the car was "a lifeless corpse blocking the single-track road".
Surveys suggest that most owners are actually broadly satisfied with their electric cars.
Range is becoming less of a problem as many new EVs can go 200 miles on a single charge and often much more, but how and where to charge the batteries remains a big issue.
You might have seen warnings that there are more than 30 electric car owners "fighting over" every public charge point.
However, almost two thirds of electric car owners have off-street parking and will rarely ever use public chargers.
With 200 miles-plus "in the tank" every morning, most people find they don't often need to top up.
But according to the RAC Foundation, 35% of people in Great Britain don't have off-street parking (a figure rising to 55% in London), and virtually all car owners will want to make longer journeys sometimes.
So, installing more public chargers - particularly rapid chargers, which can charge a car from 0% to 80% in about 30 minutes - is crucial.
One reason the ratio of chargers to EVs is low is that electric cars have been selling so well. They made up 16.6% of new car registrations in 2022 - up from 0.4% in 2016.
But it is also taking time to roll out charging infrastructure.
As of June this year, there were 44,408 charging points across the UK, 8,680 of which were rapid chargers.
The government has set a target of 300,000 public charging stations (of all speeds) by 2030, although the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has called for 2.3 million to meet demand from motorists.
The number of chargers being installed in the UK is rising each month - in June, 1,677 were installed in public places.
But unless the government ups its game, it's still likely to be more than 100,000 short of its 2030 target.
It says it can catch up, but admits that annual installations will have to more than double by 2025.
In 2022, the government also said it wanted at least six rapid chargers in every motorway service area in England by the end of this year.
However, in May the RAC said that this was unlikely to be achieved at the current rate of progress.
In the meantime, the British car industry is grappling with an even bigger problem - by 2030 it isn't going to have a market in the UK any more unless it goes electric.
That should concern us all because car manufacturing is an important industry in the UK.
About 780,000 people are employed in jobs connected with it - and it contributes an estimated £14bn a year to the economy.
The US, China and the EU are all investing billions of pounds to encourage electric vehicle manufacturing.
"The investment on offer elsewhere in the world, is quite frankly, incredibly attractive," says Emma Butcher of the SMMT.
"It does make companies think twice about when they come to make their investment decisions," she warns.
The big issue is battery production, the single most valuable part of an electric vehicle.
China has more than 100 production plants - known as gigafactories.
About 50 planned gigafactories have been announced in the EU.
It's been reported that France has offered 1.5bn euros of loans to help build four new gigafactories there.
Germany already has six but is said to be offering 1bn euros in loans to a company to build more.
The UK has only one, in Sunderland - and it is relatively small.
The Indian-owned carmaker Jaguar Land Rover has now announced that it's investing £4bn in a new gigafactory in the UK, expected to be sited in Somerset, with government subsidies worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
The Faraday Institution, a battery science research group, says that the UK is going to need at least five gigafactories by 2030 to meet domestic demand, and twice that number by 2040.
So, even though electric vehicles represent the future of the car, the UK has a long way to go before the revolution happens here. | Not_Explicit |
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden ‘s dog Commander bit Secret Service officers at least 10 times between October 2022 and January, including one incident that required a trip to the hospital for an injured law enforcement officer, according to records from the Department of Homeland Security.
The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch on Tuesday released nearly 200 pages of Secret Service records that it obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The group said it filed suit after the agency, a division of DHS, “failed to respond adequately” to its request last December for records about biting incidents involving the purebred German shepherd. The group said it filed the request after receiving a tip about Commander’s behavior.
READ MORE: Bidens’ older dog, Champ, has died; German shepherd was 13
The White House and the Secret Service appeared to play down the situation on Tuesday.
Elizabeth Alexander, communications director for first lady Jill Biden, said in an email that the White House complex is a “unique and often stressful environment” for family pets and that the Biden family was “working through ways to make this situation better for everyone.”
Anthony Guglielmi, chief spokesperson for the Secret Service, said in a separate email that his agency has for the past several presidents “navigated how best to operate around family pets and these incidents are no exception. We take the safety and wellbeing of our employees extremely seriously.”
The Secret Service provides security protection for the president and his family, and scores of its officers are posted around the executive mansion and its sprawling grounds.
Biden received Commander in December 2021 as a gift from his brother James. The president’s previous dog, another German shepherd named Major, had been sent to live with friends in Delaware after some biting incidents of his own involving Secret Service officers and White House staff.
The family also has a cat, Willow.
On Nov. 3, 2022, a Secret Service official emailed colleagues that Commander had bitten a uniformed officer twice — on the upper right arm and thigh. Staff from the White House medical unit treated the officer and decided to have the individual taken to a hospital.
A captain of the Uniform Division emailed later that day that he had been advised that Commander was up to date on his vaccinations.
A note the following day added details about the attack, including that the officer who was bitten used a steel cart to protect himself from another attack. The officer later was placed on several days of restricted duty based on doctors’ advice.
Alexander said the Bidens have been working with the Secret Service and the White House residence staff “on additional leashing protocols and training” for Commander, as well as establishing designated areas where he can run around for exercise.
“The president and first lady are incredibly grateful to the Secret Service and Executive Residence staff for all they do to keep them, their family and the country safe,” Alexander added.
Guglielmi said Secret Service employees are encouraged to report job-related injuries to their immediate supervisors for appropriate documentation.
“As such, we are aware of past incidents involving first-family pets and these instances were treated similarly to comparable workplace injuries, to include with relevant notifications and reporting procedures followed,” he said.
“While special agents and officers neither care for nor handle the first family’s pets, we continuously work with all applicable entities to minimize adverse impacts in an environment that includes pets,” Guglielmi added.
Commander is often seen being handled by the White House’s chief groundskeeper.
The New York Post was first to report on Commander’s biting incidents.
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The White House issued a statement of administration policy saying the bill amounts to federal overreach.
"The administration is strongly opposed to H.R. 3941, the Schools Not Shelters Act of 2023, which would supersede local control, interfering with the ability of states and municipalities to effectively govern and make decisions about their school buildings," it reads.
The bill would prohibit educational institutions that receive federal funding from using their facilities to shelter noncitizens, the statement continues, even though "such noncitizens are permitted to do so under the law."
Notably, the statement does not include a veto threat, though the bill faces long odds of passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Supporters of the bill claim it protects the safety of young students.
"By housing illegal immigrants on school campuses, children are being put at risk," Rep. John Rose (R-TN) said on the House floor Monday. "And elected officials who endorse these plans are sending a clear message to children and parents that illegal immigrants and President Biden’s failure to secure the southern border matter more than their education."
More than 5.5 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border since Biden took office, Rose continued, calling for border wall construction to continue and the Remain in Mexico program to be reinstated.
"But just like we’ve seen with Bidenomics, Biden-gration has completely failed the American people," he said. | Not_Explicit |
Nearly a million young people have yet to claim their Child Trust Funds, MPs have warned.
The Public Accounts Committee estimates that more than £1.7bn is sitting in accounts waiting to be accessed.
It says "failure in long term planning" by HMRC means 42% of eligible 18-20 year olds have not drawn on their savings.
A HMRC spokesperson said they had notified young people before their account matured.
The chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Dame Meg Hillier, said that while these accounts were a vital "financial jump start" to adulthood, the scheme so far had not achieved that ambition.
Under the Labour Government, any child born between 2002 and 2011 was eligible to receive at least £250 in a savings pot, which they could access as soon as they turned 18.
An average account contains £1,900.
However, according to MPs, poor planning by HMRC, a lack of engagement with account holders and barriers accessing savings meant that many from low-income backgrounds were missing out.
Children who lack capacity were particularly affected, with an estimated 80,000 having to rely on their families to go through a lengthy, often costly court process to access their savings.
Harry Kaur is one of those 80,000. His mum has saved more than £7,000 in his savings account - assuming he would be able to access it like his older brother.
But, she's been told the only way 16-year-old Harry, who has Down Syndrome and a love of Bollywood dancing, can access his money is if she goes through the Court of Protection.
"I don't know what to do to be honest, the money will mean so much to Harry - but at the same time the bureaucracy, cost, and overall impact of the legal implications is huge.
"I saved for my son, like I did for his brother, the whole system is wrong if it deprives Harry of what is rightfully his."
The committee also found that trust fund providers were not only failing to keep customers informed; they were also charging fees - up to £100m a year - just to passively manage the accounts.
More than 800,000 accounts belong to people from low-income backgrounds - prompting concern that those who need the money the most were not able to access it.
The committee said that HMRC and trust fund providers - such as buildings societies and banks - must do more to ensure that young people are aware of their savings and provide support to help them access their money.
A spokesperson for HMRC said that every 16-year-old was sent information about finding their Child Trust Fund with their National Insurance letter and that they regularly kept account holders up to date but anyone "unsure" about their situation should also contact their bank or building society. | Not_Explicit |
ROME: Europe braced for record-smashing heat on Tuesday as withering heatwaves across the globe showed no signs of easing, and ongoing wildfires in Greece and the Canary Islands threatened homes while worsening air quality.
Across vast swathes of the planet, from California to China, authorities have warned of the health dangers of the extreme heat, urging people to drink water and shelter from the burning sun.
In a stark reminder of the effects of global warming, the UN’s World Meteorological Agency (WMO) said the trend of heatwaves “shows no signs of decreasing”.
“These events will continue to grow in intensity, and the world needs to prepare for more intense heatwaves,” John Nairn, a senior extreme heat adviser at the WMO told reporters in Geneva.
“Repeated high night-time temperatures are particularly dangerous for human health, because the body is unable to recover from sustained heat,” he said. “This leads to increased cases of heart attacks and death.”
World Meteorological Agency warns of risk of heart attacks, deaths during extreme heat
Temperatures were unforgiving in Italy and in Spain, where three regions were put under hot weather red alerts. But as of midday, the Italian islands of Sardinia and Sicily had yet to surpass a continent-wide record of 48.8 degrees Celsius, (119.8 degrees Fahrenheit), recorded in Sicily in August 2021.
Many throughout Italy sought escape by the sea, including outside Rome, where the midday heat hit 40 degrees. Back in Rome, street hawkers substituted parasols and fans for selfie sticks, as tourists struggled to find rare patches of shade and waiters sported short sleeves instead of their customary more formal attire.
Tourists still needed to eat, said Mauro Natale, 45, a waiter at a cafe near the Pantheon, but “instead of a carbonara or an amatriciana (pasta), they just want to eat salad”.
Northwest of the Greek capital Athens, a vast cloud of smoke loomed over the forest of Dervenohoria, where one of several fires around the capital and beyond was still burning.
The heatwaves across Europe and the globe are “not one single phenomenon but several acting at the same time,” said Robert Vautard, director of France’s Pierre-Simon Laplace climate institute. “But they are all strengthened by one factor: climate change.”
In drought-stricken Spain, temperatures were set to reach highs of 44C in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. “You can’t be in the street, it’s horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible,” said Lidia Rodriguez, 27, in Madrid.
In the Canary Islands, some 400 firefighters battled a wildfire that has ravaged 3,500 hectares of forest and forced 4,000 residents to evacuate, with authorities warning residents to wear face masks outside due to poor air quality.
Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2023 | Not_Explicit |
Byju’s, Lenders Aim To Amend $1.2 Billion Loan Terms By Aug. 3
A group of lenders to Byju’s is working with the Indian education-technology startup to change the terms of a $1.2 billion loan after the company fell into distress earlier this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
(Bloomberg) -- A group of lenders to Byju’s is working with the Indian education-technology startup to change the terms of a $1.2 billion loan after the company fell into distress earlier this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
A steering committee of lenders on the term loan and Byju’s have agreed to work toward a signed agreement before Aug. 3, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. The talks are still ongoing, and the situation may change.
Byju’s, once India’s most valuable startup, has faced a series of crises after it missed deadlines to file audited financial account, skipped an interest payment on its term loan and triggered a legal fight with creditors. India’s government ordered an inspection into its finances after its auditor and three board members resigned.
There was no reply to emails from a spokesperson for Byju’s, who also couldn’t be reached by phone outside normal office hours.
The Economic Times reported earlier on the matter.
--With assistance from Anto Antony.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P. | Not_Explicit |
- Two Russian T-72 tanks were taken out by a single US-supplied Bradley IFV, Ukraine says.
- Ukraine's deputy defense minister said the tanks were set aflame by the Bradley's anti-tank missiles.
- Ukraine is keen to demonstrate to Western allies how it is putting their military aid to good use.
A US-supplied Bradley infantry fighting vehicle recently took out two Russian T-72 tanks, according to Ukraine's deputy defense minister.
Hanna Maliar shared an image of the Bradley with its crew on Tuesday, saying they had been fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region when they became surrounded by Russian infantry.
After Ukrainian automatic cannon fire took out the infantry Russian forces declared a "real hunt" by introducing two T-72s onto the battlefield, Maliar wrote, according to The New Voice of Ukraine's translation.
But both tanks were destroyed by the Bradley's heavy TOW anti-tank missiles, Maliar said.
Insider was unable to independently confirm Maliar's account, and the Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The fast, tough armored vehicle is not a tank, but has been referred to as a "tank killer." It can transport troops as well as provide fire support, including through the use of its powerful anti-tank missiles.
Dutch open-source weapons-tracking website Oryx said that, as of this month, Ukraine appears to have lost, or sustained damage to, 35 Bradleys — a large proportion of those handed over.
Maliar suggested that Western-donated equipment is a major target for Russian forces.
"Our military is well aware that Western equipment attracts the enemy's attention," she wrote, per The New Voice of Ukraine, adding: "As soon as the Bradley appears on the frontline, the Russians unleash all their firepower, from grenade launchers to artillery and attack helicopters."
Ukraine has been keen to demonstrate the difference the US supply of Bradleys has made on the battlefield.
In June, Maliar shared images of one such IFV appearing barely damaged after what she said was a direct rocket hit. She said the vehicle took a direct hit from a Russian Grad rocket system — but was tough enough to keep going, while protecting everyone inside.
A pair of Ukrainian soldiers also told ABC News in June that they owed their lives to the Bradley they were riding in.
"Thanks to it, I am standing here now," a soldier, identified only as Andriy, said. "If we were using some Soviet armored personnel carrier we would all probably be dead after the first hit." | Not_Explicit |
For the first time, reporters have been allowed onboard the Bibby Stockholm barge - the giant, floating accommodation complex that will house asylum seekers.
The barge is moored off Portland Port in Dorset and in the coming weeks will become home to 500 single men claiming UK asylum.
Walking around onboard, it has the feel of an old overnight ferry or an outdated motel - a bit of a faded 1980s/90s vibe.
Long, confusing corridors lead to relatively spacious cabins which include a desk, wardrobe, safe locker, TV and large windows.
Each room has an en-suite bathroom with a shower and there are additional facilities on each of the three floors.
There were originally 222 cabins - but the main contribution to increasing its capacity from 222 to 506 has been placing bunk beds in each room.
They're not the biggest beds, but the rooms don't feel too claustrophobic.
There's a TV room with a big screen and sofas, a multi-faith prayer room and a classroom which can be used for meetings and activities.
Some other communal spaces have been converted to extra dormitory space for four to six men - but we weren't allowed to see these.
The dining room is large, with a long serving counter and tables of four set out in rows.
The sample menu includes eggs and pancakes for breakfast, potato soup and beef stew for dinner. We're told it will change regularly and cater for individual needs and religious requirements.
There's a gym and outdoor recreational space in the two courtyards in the centre of the barge. The men will also have access to the dockside, within a fenced off area - we're told this is to ensure the security of the port which also sees cruise ships, cargo vessels and navy craft docking.
There will also be 24/7 security in place on board.
The men will receive healthcare onboard the barge or remotely from a team of experts, the NHS said on Friday - following concerns among the local community over the impact extra people would have on local health services.
Buses will be available hourly between 09:00 and 23:00 to take asylum seekers to Portland or Weymouth. It's not a curfew, but if they aren't back there will be a "welfare call" to check they're OK.
The government clearly wants to show that this accommodation isn't cruel or inhumane - but the Home Office has always described this as "basic and functional".
It certainly doesn't have ocean liner splendour - there's no grand staircase, fine artwork or sculpture. The stairwells feel quite industrial.
It is light, clean and currently seems reasonably comfortable.
Some of the journalists on our visit felt the standard is better than some of the hotels currently housing asylum seekers. Of course, our stay only lasted one hour.
Some men may be on board for nine months. And once it's full to capacity, conditions could feel very different.
The government says it is currently spending £6m per day housing more than 50,000 migrants in hotels.
The Home Office says that by the autumn, they aim to house about 3,000 asylum seekers in places that aren't hotels - such as the barge, and former military sites Wethersfield in Essex and Scampton in Lincolnshire.
Last week, the Home Office announced that the first asylum seekers had moved to Wethersfield. Fifty people are expected in the first group housed on the Bibby Stockholm.
As the vessel arrived on Tuesday morning, it was met with protests from local residents and human rights groups.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said the government had been "clear that those who arrive in the UK illegally should not be housed in expensive hotels".
"Our use of alternative accommodation sites and vessels provide basic and appropriate standards for small boats arrivals while their claims are determined," he said.
Dorset Council is receiving £3,500 per occupied bedspace on the Bibby Stockholm, with additional funding provided to the local NHS and police, the Home Office said.
The council has also received almost £380,000 in a one-off grant to help support local charity and voluntary organisations provide services on board, it is understood. | Not_Explicit |
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Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov and his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis discussed transporting Ukrainian grain to Greece via rail, Mediapool reported on July 24, citing Denkov.
The Bulgarian head of government said this after meeting Mitsotakis in Athens on July 24.
According to Mediapool, Bulgarian trains would load Ukrainian grain at the Ukrainian-Romanian border and transport it to the Greek port of Alexandroupoli.
As the outlet noted, it is unclear whether Bulgaria has the necessary transport capacities as its state railways suffer from a shortage of locomotives and freight cars.
However, Greece has begun developing its railway lines which are of interest to Bulgaria, Mediapool commented.
Russia withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative on July 17, effectively terminating the deal that allowed Ukraine to export its agricultural products even amid the ongoing full-scale invasion.
Ukraine is one of the world's leading grain producers and exporters and the agreement, brokered by Turkey and the U.N. in July 2022, has played a crucial role in stabilizing food prices worldwide.
The EU promised to support Ukraine's efforts to export its agricultural products via the so-called "solidarity lanes," set up in May 2022 to assist Kyiv in shipping out its produce.
According to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the solidarity lanes facilitated the export of more than 45 million tonnes of grain, oilseed, and other products so far.
Croatia also offered its rail network and ports on the Adriatic Sea as an alternative route for Ukrainian grain.
However, five EU members including Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria asked Brussels to prolong the ban on the sale of Ukrainian grain products in these countries at least until the end of 2023.
In May, the European Commission instituted the ban on wheat, maize, rapeseed, and sunflower seeds to "alleviate logistical bottlenecks" related to these goods in the five countries. The ban was extended on June 5, set to expire by Sep. 15.
According to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, the Central European EU members will nevertheless allow the transit of Ukrainian grain through their territory elsewhere. | Not_Explicit |
President Joe Biden on Friday nominated Adm. Lisa Franchetti to serve as the next Chief of Naval Operations, putting her in line to become the first woman ever to serve as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Franchetti, who has served 38 years in the military, currently serves as Vice Chief of Naval Operations. She is only the second woman ever to reach the rank of four-star admiral in service history.
Friday’s historic nomination of the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff was muted by the White House’s acknowledgement that the appointment is likely to be sidelined by ongoing political fights on Capitol Hill over the military’s abortion access policy.
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In a statement Friday, Biden praised Franchetti’s “extensive expertise in both the operational and policy arenas” as the impetus for her nomination. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a statement said Franchetti’s nomination as the first woman on the Joint Chiefs of staff will allow her to “continue to inspire all of us.”
Biden also announced the nomination of Adm. Samuel Paparo — who in recent weeks had been rumored to be in line for the CNO post — as commander of Indo-Pacific Command, and Vice Adm. Stephen Koehler as commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet.
“These two officers both have significant experience serving in the Indo-Pacific, where our military strength is critical to ensuring the security and stability of this vital region of the world,” Biden said in a statement.
All three are expected to face confirmation hearings before the Senate later this fall. However, timing of a confirmation vote is less certain because of an ongoing hold by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., over the Defense Department’s abortion policies.
Under rules put in place last fall, troops stationed in states where abortion is limited or illegal can be granted leave time and travel stipends to help cover the cost of moving across state lines for abortion services. Tuberville and a host of Republican lawmakers have decried the policy as illegal.
That showdown has stalled more than 250 senior military confirmations over the last four months, with no resolution in sight.
Earlier this week, Defense Department officials briefed senators on the policy in an attempt to convince Tuberville to drop his holds. But exiting the closed-door briefing, Tuberville said he was unimpressed and unmoved.
On Friday, Biden blasted Tuberville’s tactics.
“It has long been an article of faith in this country that supporting our servicemembers and their families, and providing for the strength of our national defense, transcends politics,” he said in a statement. “What Sen. Tuberville is doing is not only wrong, it is dangerous.
“In this moment of rapidly evolving security environments and intense competition, he is risking our ability to ensure that the United States armed forces remain the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. And his Republican colleagues in the Senate know it.”
The Senate is scheduled to break for a late-summer recess next week. Franchetti, Paparo and Koehler are likely to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee to answer questions about their new roles sometime in September, when lawmakers return.
Megan Eckstein contributed to this story.
Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. His work has earned numerous honors, including a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 National Headliner Award, the IAVA Leadership in Journalism award and the VFW News Media award. | Not_Explicit |
BRISBANE, Australia -- Indigenous sports leaders and advocates have urged FIFA to address what they've called an “egregious omission” of First Nations organizations in Australia in a Women’s World Cup legacy plan.
Former Sydney Swans Australian rules football star Adam Goodes and John Moriarty, the first Indigenous player to make Australia’s national soccer team, are among the signatories to a letter sent to soccer’s world governing body regarding funding in the wake of the World Cup.
Football Australia’s Legacy ’23 plan, formed in 2021, is a strategy designed to deliver economic, social and health benefits and multicultural inclusion following its co-hosting of the global tournament.
The joint letter to FIFA said while the report released this month features a statement acknowledging First Nations contributors to the success of women's soccer in Australia, it doesn’t include specific funding for Indigenous programs.
The letter was also signed by Sydney FC goalkeeper Jada Whyman, an Indigenous player who was called into Matildas camp in April for games against England and Scotland, co-chief executive of Professional Footballers Australia, Kate Gill, A-League women’s players Gema Simon and Allira Toby and former Socceroo Travis Dodd.
“Despite ubiquitous Indigenous culture, symbolism, traditional ceremonies and installations at the World Cup and the holding out of Indigenous culture as something of central value to football, not a single dollar from the legacy program has been committed to organizations that are Indigenous-led,” the letter said.
“Without support for the Indigenous community and their programs, we consider this symbolism empty.”
The letter was also sent to Football Australia.
Before the Women’s World Cup began, FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura said the tournament provided a platform to give opportunities to all people. She said officials needed to highlight issues for First Nations people in Australia and New Zealand.
“Because you cannot play the simple game of football by leaving outside the people without whom this nation would not have existed,” Samoura said during a visit with Indigenous players. “We cannot come and just play and leave.”
Indigenous track legend Cathy Freeman, who won the 400-meter gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in one of Australia's most iconic sporting moments, visited the Australian women's team before the tournament began. The Matildas have two Indigenous players in their current lineup, goalkeeper Lydia Williams and striker Kyah Simon.
Separately, the Indigenous Football Australia Council, formed to assist the John Moriarty Football program, is also calling on FIFA and Football Australia to include funding for First Nations-led programs in the Legacy ’23 plan before the end of the Women's World Cup.
The John Moriarty Foundation has also launched a crowd-funding campaign “ Call Time on Inequality ” to address the lack of elite level Indigenous players and raise funds to tackle the disparity they face.
“Now is the time to level the playing field by reaching even more children, more communities and empowering the next generation of Indigenous football players,” Moriarty said. “There needs to be increased investment in solutions that will lead to impactful social change and ensure equal access to football for both grassroots and elite Indigenous players.”
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AP Women’s World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | Not_Explicit |
Labour must learn the lessons of its by-election defeat in Uxbridge, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The Labour leader had blamed the loss on London Mayor Sadiq Khan's plans to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) - a tax on polluting vehicles.
Conservative Steve Tuckwell won the seat after campaigning against the tax.
Addressing Labour's national forum, Sir Keir said there was "something very wrong" when a Labour policy was on "each and every Tory leaflet".
He said that while a by-election win in Selby and Ainsty, in North Yorkshire, should give Labour "every reason to be confident", the loss in Uxbridge showed there is "still a long way to go".
"That result in Uxbridge demonstrates there is never any reason to be complacent and never a reason to rest on our laurels," Sir Keir told the forum in Nottingham.
"We've got to face up to that and to learn the lesson," he said.
Labour's Keir Mather, 25, won the contest in North Yorkshire on Thursday, overturning a 20,137 majority to become the youngest sitting MP.
But the Conservatives clung onto ex-PM Boris Johnson's former Uxbridge seat, sparking debates about both parties' green policies.
Sir Keir told the BBC the Ulez plan had cost Labour victory - but Mr Khan has defended the measure as the "right one".
Mr Tuckwell, the winning candidate, said the "damaging and costly Ulez policy" had lost Labour the seat.
Some on the right of the Conservative party say that pulling back from some green policies would prove popular with voters, at a time when families are feeling cost-of-living pressures.
Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, chairman of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, has suggested delaying the ban on new diesel and petrol cars, pushing it back "at least" five years to 2035.
Downing Street sources say there are no plans to change climate targets - but that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will try to set his party apart from Labour in the coming months.
As the major parties digest the by-election results, ex-climate minister Lord Ian Duncan, a Conservative, warned that if Sir Keir and Rishi Sunak do not put politics aside and agree a common approach to climate change, people will face "serious challenges".
Lord Duncan, who was the parliamentary under secretary for climate change from July 2019 to February 2020, said a "bipartisan approach" was needed from both parties to "get behind" common climate policies.
Politicians might win votes in the short-term by distancing themselves from strong climate policies - "but medium term, I'm not even talking long term anymore, there will be serious challenges and changes to our climate that will affect people in their everyday lives", he said.
However, speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Lord Duncan said the challenge was ensuring climate policy did not penalise people "beyond their ability to pay".
Referring to greener technology such as new gas boilers, he said: "We've got to make sure it's a transition and it works for everybody."
No one should be left behind or be impoverished by these policies, "otherwise it will be a problem for democracy", he said. | Not_Explicit |
Tadej Pogacar salvaged some pride by taking stage 20 of this year's Tour de France as Jonas Vingegaard all but sealed the defence of his title.
Pogacar has been unable to challenge Vinegaard's supremacy in the past week, but sprinted past the Dane to win on the final day of competitive racing.
Vingegaard holds a lead of seven minutes and 29 seconds ahead of Sunday's procession into Paris.
Britain's Adam Yates is third overall, one place ahead of twin brother Simon.
They were both involved in a thrilling race for the line at Le Markstein, with Adam leading out Pogacar and eventually finishing fourth, with Simon fifth.
"Today I finally feel like myself again," said Pogacar, who reduced Vingegaard's lead by six seconds because of the time bonus he received for the stage win.
"It was just really good from start to finish, to feel good again after many days suffering and to pull it off in the finish, I'm just super, super happy.
"Adam did a super job. I was waiting for him to come back and his brother again was super good. I know him now well.
"He led me out really good and thanks to him it was a bit easier to prepare for the final, less nervous and I'm super happy the team did such a great job once again."
Adam Yates said: "For me personally third (overall) is the best result I've ever had in a Grand Tour, so obviously I'm pretty happy.
"We're a little bit disappointed as our goal was to get yellow but in the end there was only one guy better than us."
France's Thibaut Pinot, riding his last Tour at the age of 33, had launched a solo attack on the penultimate climb, and was roared on by a huge crowd on his home roads as he went for an emotional farewell victory.
But he was caught and overhauled by Vingegaard, Pogacar and Felix Gall on the final climb, with the Yates brothers joining them for the sprint finish.
Vingegaard attempted to spring clear with 300m to go, but he was expertly tracked by Pogacar and sat up once he knew his hopes of taking the stage win were over, allowing Gall to pass him before the line.
Stage 20 results
1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) 3hrs 27mins 18secs
2. Felix Gall (Aut/AG2R-Citroen Team) Same time
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma)
4. Simon Yates (GB/Team Jayco-AlUla)
5. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates) +7secs
6. Warren Barguil (Fra/Team Arkea-Samsic) +33secs
7. Thibaut Pinot (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) Same time
8. Pello Bilbao (Spa/Bahrain Victorious)
9. Tobias Johannessen (Nor/Uno-X Pro Cycling) +50secs
10. Rafal Majka (Pol/UAE Team Emirates) Same time
General classification standings
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) 79hrs 16mins 38secs
2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) +7mins 29secs
3. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates) +10mins 56secs
4. Simon Yates (GB/Team Jayco-AlUla) +12mins 23secs
5. Carlos Rodriguez (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +12mins 57secs
6. Pello Bilbao (Spa/Bahrain Victorious) +13mins 27secs
7. Jai Hindley (Aus/Bora-Hansgrohe) +14mins 44secs
8. Felix Gall (Aut/AG2R-Citroen) +16mins 9secs
9. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +23mins 8secs
10. Guillaume Martin (Fra/Cofidis) +26mins 30secs
- From secretive street artist to international icon: The Banksy Story charts the rise of this anonymous household name
- Is hydrogen the solution to our energy needs? The Inquiry explores the potential of replacing our current fossil fuel usage with hydrogen | Not_Explicit |
Foxconn Officials Discuss 'Investment Opportunities' With Tamil Nadu Government
Foxconn' called on Chief Minister M K Stalin and discussed 'investment opportunities' in Tamil Nadu,
Top officials of Foxconn Industrial Internet, the subsidiary of Taiwan-based Hon Hai Technology Group, popularly known as 'Foxconn' called on Chief Minister M K Stalin and discussed 'investment opportunities' in Tamil Nadu, sources said on Wednesday.
Foxconn Industrial Internet, is a leading global total solution provider for smart manufacturing and industrial internet, according to its website.
FII chief executive officer Brand Cheng accompanied by senior company officials discussed the 'investment opportunities' in Tamil Nadu, sources said.
Minister for Industries T R B Rajaa, chief secretary Shiv Das Meena were also present on the occasion.
The meeting of FII officials with the Tamil Nadu government assumes significance as recently the delegation called on Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah about its proposal to invest Rs 8,800 crore manufacturing plant in the neighbouring state.
Foxconn, a major iPhone assembler for Apple, has proposed to set up a Rs 8,800 crore supplementary plant to that of the unit at Devanahalli Information Technology Investment Region in Karnataka, the state's Large and Medium Industries Minister M B Patil had said on Monday.
Early this month, Foxconn decided to pull out of the semiconductor joint venture with diversified conglomerate Vedanta Group.
The Vedanta-Foxconn JV had announced the setting up of India's first electronic chip manufacturing unit in Gujarat with an investment of around Rs 1.50 lakh crore. | Not_Explicit |
Statements and speeches Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
"Human rights begin at home," Türk tells EU Parliamentary Committees
20 July 2023
Delivered by
Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
At
Dialogue with the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, Committee on Development, and Subcommittee on Human Rights
Distinguished Chairpersons and Members of the European Parliament,
It is an honour to be back in Brussels, and to have this exchange of views with you about the range of human rights issues that your work addresses.
Walking into the Espace Léopold, with its transparency and symbolic representation of union and accountability, it occurs to me that just one human lifetime ago, none of this existed. This building, these institutions, but also my Office, the United Nations – and the dialogue, the sense of common values which actually underpin every single thing we do.
Both of our institutions were built as acts of courage and defiance, in the face of war upon war upon war; atrocity crimes the horror of genocide; generations of exploitation and pain.
The United Nations, and the European Union, were built as acts of hope and a commitment to profound and enduring principle. These acts manifested the values that seventy-five years ago our forebears set out, to mark a new path that would lead to peace, justice and shared prosperity for all human beings.
In 1948, when States drafted and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they had no time for idle idealism. They forged these commitments as practical tools for the problems that the world faced coming out of the Second World War.
And we know that those tools have worked.
Over the past 75 years, the world – and Europe – have made great strides away from colonial exploitation, discrimination of every kind, and many other types of injustices. Nobody could claim that this progress has been perfect – nobody is perfect – but it seems clear that much of it has been guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – the most translated, and perhaps among the most influential documents in history – and the subsequent treaties and laws that have been adopted.
Today, as we approach the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we are also approaching a kind of crossroads. We see a conjunction of multiple crises forces us to make choices of immense significance. Our choices to act, or not to act, with careful determination and in line with these deep-seated and shared values, will alter many aspects of politics, economy and society across Europe and the world.
We have seen how Europe continues to lead the development of careful regulation of digital technologies, but we know how their intense acceleration – especially of generative AI – fuels echo chambers and extremist movements, and challenges privacy, truth, equality, free speech, and democratic institutions.
Russia's war on Ukraine continues to threaten the world's peace architecture. It tugs multilateral and regional institutions back to blocs and to hostile standoffs, just at the time when we need to forge consensus solutions for problems that are too big for any country or for any region to face alone.
Climate change is out of control. The world's triple planetary crisis is threatening all of humanity, with human rights implications in each aspect of that. Despite a great deal of work being done in the EU – and I do want to acknowledge that considerable effort – still, a lot more work needs to be done to stop subsidising fossil fuel industries before they turn all human beings into fossils.
Unfortunately we also are seeing more conflicts breaking out – with climate change and environmental degradation a growing factor, as people compete for scarce resources. The sudden outbreak of conflict in Sudan demonstrates how fragile peace is and how quickly hard-won gains can be lost. Next week I will be going to Chad, where well over 100,000 more refugees have fled, especially from Darfur – and which also suffers from massive climate change impacts and violent extremism.
Progress towards the Sustainable Development Agenda has been derailed, with sharp economic inequalities of every kind. Extreme hunger is a particular concern. The World Food Programme estimates that more than 345 million people will face high levels of food insecurity this year – more than double the number in 2020. Again, conflict – including the war in Ukraine – and climate change are among the major factors driving global hunger.
The movement of migrants and refugees is clearly related to this dismal state of affairs. It has to be said that most displacement occurs within countries, and in the poorest regions of the world. I very much welcome the fact that EU countries have received over 4 million Ukrainian refugees. But I have also watched with great concern how polarised and fraught the broader discussion around migration and refugee protection has become in Europe. It deepens, unfortunately, political divisions in countries and fuels populist hostility, rather than what I think is needed: rational and evidence-based debate that tries to find really solutions.
Factually, for example, the former so-called 'Australia model' of deterring arrivals and transferring people, who are seeking safety, to third countries has raised serious human rights concerns; it has also engaged great cost to tax-payers; and it has not been viable. At the same time, robust immigration is actually vital for countries where birth-rates are declining.
We have also seen that numerous countries, including some in the EU, are backsliding on other fundamental human rights commitments. I'm thinking especially of commitments to support the widest possible civic space, including the right to peaceful assembly; commitments to support the independence of an impartial judiciary; and to commitments to uphold equality and non-discrimination. And we have seen a backlash against women's sexual and reproductive health and rights, and against the rights of LGBTIQ+ people, as we really need to make sure there is much stronger work to uphold the equality of people of African descent and migrants.
This is the most complex geopolitical and geo-economic backdrop in decades.
But we know that human rights is the compass that can help us to navigate safely through such times.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was laid out at a time of immense challenges, and it distils the practical steps which ensure that people of different origins and opinions can walk away from crisis, and live together peacefully, fairly, and well.
These steps to uphold human rights add up to make the difference between conflict and peace; between destruction and prosperity; between tyranny and social harmony. They advance justice, participation, conflict resolution and power-sharing and nourish a resilient social contract that prevents the outbreak of violent conflict and uncontrolled spread of extremism.
Human rights begin at home. They are not an annex to foreign policy; to geopolitics; or any kind of annex at all. They must be at the core of legislation, at the national and the EU level.
We have launched this concept of the human rights economy because we need to place human rights at the core of the economy, including through economic and fiscal policy, and the regulation of businesses, including – as you are demonstrating – human rights safeguards in global supply chains.
We need human rights to be at the core of all decisions and behaviour made by every public servant, in every country.
As Members of key Committees of the world's largest democratically elected parliament, you are human rights actors. No doubt about this. In this anniversary year, I encourage you to make one or several pledges to take action that can catalyse positive change, and transformative change, in human rights. These pledges can be presented at the Human Rights 75 High level event we are convening in Geneva on 11 and 12 December.
Human rights must not become the collateral damage of politics.
Thank you for contributing to this work of my Office and for helping to sustain a world, that is peaceful, prosperous and fair. | Not_Explicit |
- Ukraine took out a Russian military repair depot in Crimea, per an unofficial Russian source.
- The site was reportedly struck by the UK-supplied Storm Shadow missile.
- On the same day, Russia announced a nearby town had to be evacuated due to a hail of drone attacks.
A Russian vehicle repair base in Crimea was struck by a Ukrainian Storm Shadow missile on Monday, according to a Russian source.
The base was hit by one of four cruise missiles fired by Ukrainian Su-24 jets overnight, according to the Russian Telegram outlet Rybar, with one missile striking the repair depot near Dhzankoy, a town to the north of the peninsula, and the other three striking an ammunition store.
Insider was unable to independently verify the claim, which was also highlighted in a briefing by the US-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War.
Rybar is a prominent pro-Kremlin Russian blogger with more than a million followers, and is rumored to be connected to the Kremlin and the Wagner Group.
Dzhankoy and its surrounding villages were evacuated on Monday due to Ukrainian drone strikes, Russian news outlet TASS reported the Russian-installed leader of Crimea as saying. This would include the site where the repair depot is located.
TASS did not mention the reported Storm Shadow strikes, but said that 11 drones were shot down while one destroyed an ammunition pile.
According to Rybar, the drone attack preceded the Storm Shadow strikes.
The vehicle repair base south of Dzhankoy has served at earlier points in the war as a major repair hub, according to Forbes, housing hundreds of fighting vehicles, tanks, and trucks being fixed up for the invasion.
It's unclear how many were on-site, or indeed hit, on Monday.
But the episode highlights the growing pressures the UK-supplied Storm Shadow has laid on Russian command and control.
Ukraine has had its hands on the missile, also known as SCALP, since earlier this year.
With a range of up to 155 miles, the air-launched missile has put vast swathes of Russian-held territory within reach of Ukraine, pressuring Russian commanders to move their supply lines further behind the front lines.
The site of the Crimea repair depot is roughly 130 miles behind the front lines of the conflict.
Firing a Storm Shadow is both risky and expensive, as experts previously told Insider, and this means Ukraine is likely reserving its use for concentrated, high-value targets.
This could also pressure Russia's army to disperse its depots and ammunition caches into smaller, more nimble formations — which would be a fresh challenge for Russia's centralized, Soviet-style military command. | Not_Explicit |
DeSantis PAC uses AI-generated Trump voice in ad attacking ex-president
The spot illustrates the new frontiers in political advertising.
A pro-Ron DeSantis super PAC uses an Artificial Intelligence version of Donald Trump’s voice in a new television ad attacking the former president.
The ad, from Never Back Down, charges Trump with attacking Iowa governor Kim Reynolds as part of a larger pattern of disrespect he has shown to the first caucus state.
But the audio that the spot uses is not actually from Trump. A person familiar with the ad confirmed Trump’s voice was AI generated. Its content appears to be based off of a post that Trump made on his social media site Truth Social last week. The person said it will run statewide in Iowa tomorrow and that the ad buy was at least $1 million — a massive sum though one doable for the well-heeled super PAC. It will also be running via text message and on digital platforms.
Political ads have used impersonation before, and the Trump-generated voice in the Never Back Down ad does not sound entirely natural. Still, the spot highlights what could be the next frontier of campaign advertising: The use of AI-generated content to produce increasingly difficult to identify, so-called deepfakes.
“The blatant use of AI to fabricate President Trump’s voice is a desperate attempt by Always Back Down and Jeff Roe to deceive the American public because they know DeSanctimonious’ campaign is on life support,” said Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita, referring to a top official with the pro-DeSantis super PAC. “After losing big donors and slashing their staff, they have now outsourced their work to AI just like they would like to outsource American jobs to China.”
Never Back Down had previously used AI to superimpose a fighter jet into a pro-DeSantis ad. | Not_Explicit |
Mark Graham lived to tell the tale of his encounter with a "super inquisitive" great white shark that nibbled on his GoPro camera during a dive
A United Kingdom resident has a shark tale you have to see to believe — luckily, the shocking interaction was caught on camera.
According to The New York Post, Mark Graham recently took a sea trip that could have turned deadly. While embarking on a Great White Shark Cage Diving Crew tour in South Africa, as the tour's videographer, he came face to face with an apex predator. "People seem to love the clip," the 31-year-old said of the great white shark footage, which is currently making its rounds on social media.
The unforgettable expedition took place in Klein Brak, Mossel Bay. Graham's GoPro Hero camera was recording when the great white appeared before the dive group. The device captured the aquatic inhabitant opening its large mouth, baring rows of razor-sharp teeth,
In the clip, the shark swims up to Graham in the murky South African waters. Per National Geographic, great whites can reach over 20 feet in length and weigh more than 4,000 pounds. Their massive muscles and mouth allow them to wreak havoc on their prey.
However, Graham described his shark encounter as "gentle" and "super inquisitive." After approaching the diver, the shark lightly nudged the GoPro Hero attached to his head and swam away.
"Their electro receptors can pick up the GoPro, so they get super curious and come in close to investigate," Graham told Media Drum World, per the New York Post. "It was an incredibly gentle interaction from the shark. It was just trying to figure out what the strange electrical thingy in the water was."
Graham added that others who saw the incident may have been "freaked out," but he appreciated the rare moment.
"Having such a personal and gentle interaction with such a big animal felt extremely captivating," he confessed. And although movies like Jaws and Deep Blue Sea may not paint the predators in the best light, the U.K. diver wants individuals to respect the deep sea creatures.
"I think humans have an instinctive fear of what they can't see and don't understand. If you get the chance to see them in the wild, go and see them, I guarantee your perception will change," he said earlier this year after a similar encounter.
While Graham made it through his shark experience untouched, a Florida resident can't say the same. On July 14, Chris Pospisil, a University of Central Florida student, had a near-fatal interaction with a shark. The 21-year-old was surfing with his friend Reece Redish at New Smyrna Beach when a shark knocked him off his surfboard. The predator then latched onto the young man's foot.
"The shark came from under me, on my board, and tipped me backwards off my board, and I was falling backwards, I saw my foot in his mouth, and it dragged me under," Pospisil recalled as he spoke to FOX affiliate WOFL-TV. He credits Redish for helping him survive the terrifying ordeal.
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"Reece was already there, already on top of me, got me by my shirt, and pulled me on the board," Pospisil said. Once on shore, he hoped his injuries would be minimal. "I remember asking the lifeguard, 'Am I going to lose my foot?' He was like, 'I don't know, man,'" the college student added.
While noting that "The top of my foot is going to be numb in some areas for the rest of my life, and my foot might be stiff because they had to repair all seven tendons," Pospisil added that he is ready to return to the water. "It hasn't changed anything. I'm definitely going to keep surfing. It's my lifestyle, and it's something I love to do," he admitted.
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Read the original article on People. | Not_Explicit |
LOS ANGELES — California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $1.5 million fine against the Temecula Valley Unified School District less than a day after conservative board members voted to reject a state-endorsed curriculum that includes a short biography of gay rights leader Harvey Milk.
On top of the fine, the district east of Los Angeles will have to pay the $1.6 million shipping costs associated with sending the materials to the district, which he previously vowed to do if the board did not approve the material.
“After we deliver the textbooks into the hands of students and their parents, the state will deliver the bill — along with a $1.5 million fine — to the school board for its decision to willfully violate the law, subvert the will of parents, and force children to use an out-of-print textbook from 17 years ago,” Newsom said Wednesday in a statement.
The president of the school board, Joseph Komrosky, had said he would reject any such shipments, but school board members who voted in favor of the learning materials say they support Newsom's actions.
"It was a mistake to reject the curriculum," board member Steven Schwartz said Wednesday. "When you play with fire, sometimes you get burned."
Board member Allison Barclay said that "it is devastating to receive news of a fine of this magnitude."
"Our students deserve the best, and I believe that this new curriculum that was piloted by 47 teachers and 1,300 students is an excellent resource for our district," she said in an email. "I am hopeful we can work with the state to come into compliance and avoid any undue financial burden on our district that, in the end, will only hurt our students."
In an emailed statement, Komrosky said the school district still has time to meet state and federal mandates before the next school year. He has convened a special meeting of the board for Friday to discuss curriculum for the upcoming school year.
"We do not appreciate Governor Newsom’s effort to usurp local control and all that will apparently result from these tactics is a waste of the taxpayers’ money," he said in an emailed statement.
Newsom, meanwhile, has not held back from sharing his disapproval of Komrosky, Jennifer Wiersma and Danny Gonzalez.
“The three political activists on the school board have yet again proven they are more interested in breaking the law than doing their jobs of educating students — so the state will do their job for them,” he said in a statement.
“California will ensure students in Temecula begin the school year with access to materials reviewed by parents and recommended by teachers across the district,” he added.
On Tuesday night, at a nearly six-hour meeting that turned chaotic at times, three school board members backed by a conservative political action committee with ties to an evangelical church voted to reject supplemental materials for children in grades one through five.
Komrosky, the board president, has called Milk a "pedophile," while dozens of attendees, many from outside the school district, delivered impassioned speeches against teaching anything that refers to sex or homosexuality to elementary school-age students.
Opponents countered that Milk, a member of the San Fransisco Board of Supervisors who was assassinated in 1978, was an important California figure and a champion of underrepresented communities whose legacy is worthy of being taught in schools.
Many also argued that any mention of Milk would be limited to a short biography available only in supplemental materials and that changing the curriculum just four weeks before classes resume would throw teachers and their lesson plans into turmoil.
"The state having to step in to provide curricular materials that adhere to state law underscores the fact that the extremist board majority is not fit to govern and only listens to outside agitators instead of local parents and teachers," said Jennee Scharf, a high school English teach in the Temecula district.
Scharf is among several educators and residents backing a recall of the three conservative school board members six months after they took office. | Not_Explicit |
The European Union has approved a €43 billion ($47.5 billion) plan to develop more fabs and increase semiconductor production in the region. The move will aim to double the EU’s global market share from 10 percent to “at least” 20 percent by 2030, according to a European Council press release.
“In the long run, this will also contribute to the renaissance of our industry and the reduction of our foreign dependencies,” Héctor Gómez Hernández, Spanish minister for industry, trade, and tourism, said in a statement. The Chips Act is meant to attract more investment and elevate research in Europe so that the bloc can be ready for future semiconductor shortages and be less reliant on foreign chips.
The news comes more than a year after the EU outlined ambitious plans to become a leader in developing and fabricating semiconductor chips. Companies like Intel are already building new manufacturing facilities in the continent.
The Chips Act follows after the United States’ increased domestic investments. The US has dedicated $52 billion to compete with China on semiconductor production with the CHIPS and Science Act passed in 2022. The Biden administration is offering $39 billion in incentives for companies to build plants stateside.
The Chips Act was approved by the Council of the European Union today. Next, it will be signed by the president of the European Parliament and the president of the Council and subsequently will be published in the Office Journal of the EU before going into effect. | Not_Explicit |
Sharda Cropchem Q1 Results Review - Subdued; Near Term Outlook Bleak: Prabhudas Lilladher
Volume/price decline of 11%/18% YoY; forex up 6.5% YoY in Q1 FY24.
BQ Prime’s special research section collates quality and in-depth equity and economy research reports from across India’s top brokerages, asset managers and research agencies. These reports offer BQ Prime’s subscribers an opportunity to expand their understanding of companies, sectors and the economy.
Prabhudas Lilladher Report
We trim our FY24/25E estimates of Sharda Cropchem Ltd. by 27%/16% and downgrade the rating to ‘Accumulate’ (earlier 'Buy') citing near term pressure on both revenues and margins, led by adverse weather conditions in key geographies and high inventory concerns both at manufacturer and distributor levels which in turn exerts pressure on revenue growth and margins.
Sharda Cropchem reported subdued set of results with revenue decline of 23% YoY to Rs 6.3 billion (our estimate: Rs 8.0 billion), led by volume/price de-growth of 11%/18%YoY partially aided by positive forex variance of 6.5% YoY.
Gross margins contracted 1670 basis points YoY to 8.7% (lowest in the last 10 years), largely led by-
high cost inventory provisions of Rs 710 million;
higher sales return of Rs 1.35 billion; and
acute pressure on price realizations particularly in the NAFTA region.
Lower gross margin coupled with higher opex up 530 bps YoY has resulted into an Ebitda loss of Rs 688 million (including IU&AD write-off of Rs 27 million in Q1 FY24 versus Rs 29 million in Q1 FY23).
Citing cautious near term growth outlook, management has revised downward their FY24E revenue growth guidance to 8-10% (earlier ~15%) thereby putting pressure on margins (Ebitda margins guided earlier at 18-20% for FY24E).
Click on the attachment to read the full report:
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This report is authored by an external party. BQ Prime does not vouch for the accuracy of its contents nor is responsible for them in any way. The contents of this section do not constitute investment advice. For that you must always consult an expert based on your individual needs. The views expressed in the report are that of the author entity and do not represent the views of BQ Prime.
Users have no license to copy, modify, or distribute the content without permission of the Original Owner. | Not_Explicit |
JERUSALEM — Israel’s parliament passed a key law Monday as part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's effort to overhaul the country’s judicial system, despite international criticism and huge protests.
The bill will remove the power of judges to overrule Cabinet members’ decisions in which they fail a “reasonableness” test.
Opposition politicians walked out of the chamber, shouting "shame" and "government of destruction," boycotting the vote. Later, a crowd of protesters outside the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, tried to cross a police cordon near the building before being repelled, officials said.
All 64 members of the ruling coalition voted in favor of the bill but no lawmakers voted against.
Netanyahu, who attended the vote hours after being released from a hospital following an emergency heart procedure, and his allies say the change is needed to stop unelected judges from overruling democratic leaders.
President Isaac Herzog had attempted to find a compromise between the government and opposition parties, and called the standoff between the two sides a “national emergency.”
Thousands of protesters outside the Knesset believe the government’s proposed judicial overhaul is a national crisis and argue that a crucial check on political power will now be lost, harming the Jewish state’s democracy and boosting Netanyahu’s power.
Demonstrators banged on drums, blew horns and waved Israeli flags as they blocked a road leading to the Knesset. Businesses closed in protest. Police used water cannons on the demonstrating crowds.
Police earlier said 12 protesters, referred to as “troublemakers,” had been detained near the Knesset, and that one had bitten a police officer.
Protesters say Netanyahu faces a choice between democracy and autocracy.
“After an unprecedented wave of protests, and clear warnings from the security establishment, industry leaders, the hi-tech sector, the trade unions and now directly from the White House, today Netanyahu will decide between the will of the people and the will of the extremists in his own government,” Shikma Bressler, a protest movement leader, said in a statement before the final vote.
Many military reservists and retired veterans are taking part in the direct action, a sign of how deeply felt the overhaul is across Israeli society.
“We’re not going to continue to risk our lives going to serve in an air force of a country that is not democratic. It’s as simple as that,” Guy Poran, a former air force pilot who is now a protest movement leader, said ahead of the vote.
“You’re either for this kind of legislation or you’re fighting against it. And this is something that has never happened in 75 years of existence of Israel. And, frankly, it’s frightening,” he said.
So many reservists are taking part in protests that it has become a national security problem, according to a senior military leader.
“These are dangerous cracks,” military chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi wrote in a letter to soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday meant to address the tensions. “If we will not be a strong and cohesive military, if the best do not serve in the IDF, we will no longer be able to exist as a country in the region.”
The plan, which was backed by Israel’s ruling coalition of far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, has been the source of intense protests for months.
The United States took the highly unusual step of weighing-in after the vote on the internal political developments of its close ally.
“We see the passage of part of the legal reform as unfortunate,” the Biden administration said.
Earlier, in a statement to the news website Axios on Sunday, President Joe Biden urged Netanyahu to come to a peaceable consensus.
“Given the range of threats and challenges confronting Israel right now, it doesn’t make sense for Israeli leaders to rush this — the focus should be on pulling people together and finding consensus,” he said.
The political turmoil comes amid heightened concerns over Netanyahu's health. The 73-year-old was fitted with a pacemaker over the weekend, in his second hospital stay in two weeks.
The prime minister recorded a short video saying he was well, thanking the doctors and the public for their support. He attended the Knesset vote in person.
The opposition movement does not end with this vote. The chairman of the Histradut, Israel's national labor union, Arnon Bar-David, said after Monday's vote that he will gather his members and if necessary call a "complete shutdown."
Paul Goldman and Raf Sanchez reported from Jerusalem, Patrick Smith from London. | Not_Explicit |
- Joburg CBD explosion: Are you on the scene or have been affected by the explosion? Send us your photos, videos, etc. to [email protected]
2m ago
City Power's Isaac Mangena tells eNCA that while they are still unclear about what happened, the utility's technicians were on their way to the scene to assess the electricity cables underground. Mangena says City Power's Bree Substation isn't far from the scene where some of the damage has been seen.
- Sheldon Morais
5m ago
Evening Joburg— Exec. Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda (@KabeloGwamanda) July 19, 2023
Following the explosion that happened this afternoon at Jhb CBD, which caused the road to partially collapse. I’ll be heading there this evening, to assess the damage.
Please take note of the following road closures:
Bree & Simmons
Bree & Harrison
Loveday street pic.twitter.com/GzV6viGGsH
5m ago
News24 journalist Ntwaagae Seleka is on Rissik Street.
This is his update: A paramedic at the scene says they have transported more than 10 people with serious to minor injuries to hospital. Some injured people are being attended to at the scene.
10m ago
Senior fire officials say they are satisfied that there is "no gas in the air".
- Sheldon Morais and Alex Patrick
11m ago
Joburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda is also making his way to the scene. His spokesperson Mlimandlela Ndamase confirmed this, telling News24 that "We are on our way to the scene."
- Bongekile Macupe
14m ago
15m ago
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has confirmed to News24 that he "just entered the scene" of the explosion. He told News24 that he would not comment until he has been briefed.
- Bongekile Macupe
17m ago
ER24 spokesperson Russel Meiring confirmed to News24 on Wednesday night that scores of people sustained minor to moderate injuries following the suspected gas explosion in the Joburg CBD.
“Reports thus far show that no one had sustained any fatal injuries,” Meiring said.
- Iavan Pijoos
19m ago
Paramedics on the ground in Lilian Ngoyi Street, near Rissik Street, say firefighters there are more confident with the situation, at least in terms of fires breaking out, despite the smell of gas lingering in the air.
- Sheldon Morais and Alex Patrick
22m ago
Journalist Alex Patrick, driving through Constitutional Hill on her way to the scene, has spotted several government forensics vehicles heading to the scene.
- Sheldon Morais
25m ago
Mihlali Ntsabo is on Lillian Ngoyi Street. Law enforcement officials there have told him part of the road has sunk in.
People around the area are being steered away from the damage. It is unclear if any buildings in this vicinity where Ntsabo is have been damaged. However, he can see damaged vehicles.
- Sheldon Morais
30m ago
Paramedics whose teams responded to the emergency have described the scene as a “red zone”, saying they asked their paramedics who reported to the scene to stand down.
- Sheldon Morais and Iavan Pijoos
34m ago
A paramedic has told News24 journalist Alex Patrick that part of Bree Street has been closed off as emergency workers treat patients. There are ambulances at the scene.
- Sheldon Morais
37m ago
News24 audio journalist Mihlali Ntsabo is in the city centre. He is reporting that there is commotion at the scene. Darkness has fallen in Johannesburg so evacuations and rescue efforts may become that much harder.
- Sheldon Morais
39m ago
45m ago
Officials on the scene are concerned whether the gas lines have been switched off, if indeed it is a gas-fuelled blast.
- Sheldon Morais
46m ago
The first photos and images emerging show scenes unlike any many people have seen before. Roads are broken up, cars are lying on their sides with their windows shattered.
- Sheldon Morais
47m ago
A voice recording describing the incident details how the speaker believes the blast or disruption “started on Loveday Street” before spreading to Bree Street.
“Taxis have overturned and people are injured. What has happened here is really bad and I think the underground gas just exploded. Cars were flying in the air and some have fallen,” the woman speaking in the clip can be heard saying.
- Sheldon Morais
51m ago
19 July 2023 - 17h46— Road Angels Traffic Information (@Road_Angels_SA) July 19, 2023
We are aware of an explosion on Bree Street in Jhb CBD possibly on the gas lines underground.
At this time we request the public to *stay clear* of the area to allow emergency services to attend to the scene. pic.twitter.com/zL674bGidB
51m ago
51m ago
51m ago
51m ago
BREAKING | Massive explosion rocks Joburg CBD, leaving devastation in its wake
Authorities rushed to the Johannesburg Central Business District on Wednesday evening following reports of an explosion in Bree Street.
The city's emergency medical services confirmed an explosion but said they were not yet aware of any deaths.
"We are aware of an explosion on Bree Street in Jhb CBD possibly on the gas lines underground," the Johannesburg North Joint Operations Committee (JOC) said in a communique.
The JOC is made up of community policing forums for Alexandra, Bramley, Midrand, Sandringham and Sandton.
"At this time we request the public to stay clear of the area to allow emergency services to attend to the scene. Videos showed huge cracks in the road and vehicles on their side.
- Cebelihle Bhengu and Jenna Verster | Not_Explicit |
American model Gigi Hadid was arrested and fined in the Cayman Islands earlier this month over cannabis possession, it has been revealed.
The 28-year-old and her friend were detained after their luggage was searched as they arrived on a private jet for a holiday on 10 July.
They pleaded guilty in court and paid a fine, but no conviction was recorded.
Hadid's representative said the marijuana was purchased legally in New York "with a medical license".
"It has also been legal for medical use in Grand Cayman since 2017. Her record remains clear and she enjoyed the rest of her time on the island," they said in a statement shared with the PA news agency.
According to the Cayman Islands Customs and Border Control, Hadid and her friend Leah McCarthy were arrested for "the importation of marijuana and importation of utensils used for the consumption of marijuana".
It was a small amount, seemingly for personal consumption, the agency added.
They were taken to a detention centre and released on bail, local newspaper the Cayman Marl Road reported.
The pair appeared in the Cayman Islands summary court two days later, where they were fined 1,000 Cayman Islands dollars ($1,200; £920).
Despite this, the model appeared to still enjoy her holiday.
"All's well that ends well", she told her Instagram followers on Tuesday, posting photos of the beachside getaway.
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Gigi Hadid is one of the world's most famous models - and reportedly one of the highest paid. She has worked with leading luxury brands including Versace, Chanel, Fendi and Marc Jacobs and has graced the cover of Vogue more than 30 times.
The Cayman Islands is a British overseas territory in the Caribbean that has beautiful beaches, coral reefs and abundant marine life. | Not_Explicit |
The 23-year-old is unlikely to start after doing his first training session on Friday after a period out with illness.
Mauricio Pochettino has also explained that, despite playing Premier League opposition in the Summer Series, he will continue to use his young players on Saturday night.
Chelsea are expected to use a similar group of players to the one who beat Wrexham 5-0 in North Carolina on Wednesday night.
Bashir Humphreys and either Ben Chilwell or Marc Cucurella will complete the backline. Chelsea will also play with a young midfield again after Andrey Santos, Carney Chukwuemeka and Cesare Casadei all excelled last time out.
Predicted Chelsea XI: Kepa; Gusto, Thiago Silva, Humphreys, Chilwell; Andrey, Chukwuemeka, Casadei; Jackson, Nkunku, Sterling.
Injured: None
Doubt: Chalobah
Time and date: 12am BST on Sunday, July 23, 2023
Location: Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia | Not_Explicit |
A Russian-born billionaire oil tycoon is challenging the UK government's decision to freeze his assets.
Eugene Shvidler had two of his private jets, worth up to $60m (£45m), detained last March.
He was sanctioned over ties with ex-Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich and a mining company operating in Russia.
In the first such case of its kind at the High Court, the 59-year-old, who moved to the US in 1989, wants the sanctions lifted.
Lord Anderson KC, representing Mr Shvidler, said there could be no doubt his client was "sought to be used as a poster boy for Russian sanctions" in light of comments made by ministers at the time his planes were seized.
He added that other similar challenges are understood to be waiting behind Mr Shvidler's case, which is due to be ruled on at a later date.
Mr Shvidler is seeking a declaration that his designation under post-Brexit regulations on sanctions was unlawful, and an order quashing the designation.
Lord Anderson said the designation had destroyed Mr Shvidler's ability to deal with his assets and conduct his business, disrupted his life and the lives of his family, deprived employees of their livelihoods and shattered his reputation.
He said his client has no relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin nor any influence on Russian policy - and had spoken out against the war in Ukraine.
He added that England had been Mr Shvidler's main home since 2004 and his five children were all British citizens at UK schools - although two "were required to leave those schools" because of the sanctions.
Mr Shvidler has demonstrated his commitment to the UK through philanthropy, including funding a library and scholarships for disadvantaged young people, Lord Anderson added.
Opposing the challenge, government lawyers argued the decision to impose sanctions was neither disproportionate nor discriminatory and asked the court to dismiss the case. | Not_Explicit |
Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania have jointly called on the European Union to extend the ban on imports of Ukrainian grain to those five countries beyond its currently planned end date of 15 September.
“We will not open this border. If the European Commission does not extend the ban, we will do it ourselves,” said Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, speaking alongside agriculture ministers from the quintet of eastern member states.
The countries say that their decision – which comes just after Russia pulled out of a deal allowing the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea – is not directed against Ukraine, but rather aims at protecting their own agriculture sector.
📢Zakaz importu zbóż z Ukrainy – stanowisko 5⃣ krajów przyfrontowych. 🗨️Musimy zabezpieczyć interesy tych, którzy produkują żywność w naszych krajach – mówili wszyscy uczestnicy dzisiejszego spotkania.
Więcej 👉https://t.co/gKLaYEw75z pic.twitter.com/qo4GE1TzMa
— Ministerstwo Rolnictwa i Rozwoju Wsi (@MRiRW_GOV_PL) July 19, 2023
Earlier this year, farmers protested that growing exports of Ukrainian grain to and through eastern EU member states during the war was pushing down prices. That led Poland to unilaterally introduce a ban on imports and transit in May, despite EU rules giving Brussels exclusive competence over trade policy.
Soon after, a deal was reached with the European Commission to ban the import of Ukrainian grain to the five eastern member states but with transit through them allowed to continue.
Today, the ministers signed a joint statement underlining the need to extend preventive measures on imports of wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds from Ukraine beyond 15 September 2023. The document will be presented at the EU Council of Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries in Brussels on 25 July 2023.
The EU has reached an agreement to ban the import of Ukrainian grain to Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria while letting transit through those countries take place https://t.co/9D8VO1Cxkt
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 28, 2023
The quintet added, however, that they want to allow transit to continue, with Poland’s agriculture minister, Robert Telus, arguing that the import ban has actually improved transit to third countries.
“Our actions in defence of the interests of farmers from EU countries are not directed against anyone,” said Telus. “They are a call for reconsideration and for appropriate, much-needed decisions on the part of the European Commission.”
“Our countries are helping [Ukraine] the most among the EU countries,” added Slovak agriculture minister Jozef Bíreš. “We will do everything to ensure that the solidarity corridors place as little burden as possible on the countries through which they pass.”
Poland’s decision to ban Ukrainian grain – angering both Kyiv and Brussels – highlighted how important rural votes are for the ruling party as it bids for re-election.
Rural areas account for 40% of Poland's population, one of the highest levels in the EU https://t.co/QI2WRqUHaT
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 25, 2023
Following recent falls in the price of certain fruits in Poland, such as raspberries, Morawiecki added that quintet stand ready to extend the ban beyond grain to other groups of products “if there are signs of destabilisation in other agricultural markets”.
“There will be import bans and compensation for farmers. We never leave farmers on their own and this will also be the case this time – in relation to the fruit market, for example,” he said.
Today’s announcement comes just two days after Russia pulled out of a UN-backed deal for safe transit of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea. That has caused renewed concerns about food shortages in parts of the Middle East and Africa that rely on imports from Ukraine.
Russia’s refusal to extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative harms millions of hungry people around the world. Using food as a weapon is unconscionable. We urge Russia to reverse course.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) July 17, 2023
Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters. | Not_Explicit |
EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP) — Wrecking ball-sized buoys on the Rio Grande. Razor wire strung across private property without permission. Bulldozers changing the very terrain of America's southern border.
For more than two years, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has escalated measures to keep migrants from entering the U.S., pushing legal boundaries with a go-it-alone bravado along the state's 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) border with Mexico. Now blowback over the tactics is widening, including from within Texas.
A state trooper's account of officers denying migrants water in 100-degree Fahrenheit (37.7 Celsius) temperatures and razor wire leaving asylum-seekers bloodied has prompted renewed criticism. The Mexican government, the Biden administration and some residents are pushing back.
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Abbott, who cruised to a third term in November while promising tougher border crackdowns, has used disaster declarations as the legal bedrock for some measures.
Critics call that a warped view.
“There are so many ways that what Texas is doing right now is just flagrantly illegal,” said David Donatti, an attorney for the Texas American Civil Liberties Union.
Abbott did not respond to requests for comment. He has repeatedly attacked President Joe Biden's border policies, tweeting Friday that they "encourage migrants to risk their lives crossing illegally through the Rio Grande, instead of safely and legally over a bridge.”
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The Biden administration said illegal border crossings have declined significantly since new immigration rules took effect in May.
ALTERED BORDER
Under the international bridge connecting Eagle Pass, Texas, with Piedras Negras, Mexico, protesters gathered at Shelby Park this month, chanting “save the river" and blowing a conch shell in a ceremony. A few yards away, crews unloaded neon-orange buoys from trailers parked by a boat ramp off the Rio Grande.
Jessie Fuentes stood with the environmental advocates, watching as state troopers restricted access to the water where he holds an annual kayak race. Shipping containers and layers of concertina wire lined the riverbank.
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The experienced kayaker often took clients and race participants into the water through a shallow channel formed by a border island covered in verdant brush. That has been replaced by a bulldozed stretch of barren land connected to the mainland and fortified with razor wire.
“The river is a federally protected river by so many federal agencies, and I just don’t know how it happened,” Fuentes told the Eagle Pass City Council the night before.
Neither did the city council.
“I feel like the state government has kind of bypassed local government in a lot of different ways. And so I felt powerless at times,” council member Elias Diaz told The Associated Press.
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The International Boundary of Water Commission says it was not notified when Texas modified several islands or deployed the massive buoys to create a barrier covering 1,000 feet (305 meters) of the middle of the Rio Grande, with anchors in the riverbed.
The Justice Department has warned Texas that the buoy wall is unlawful and the Biden administration will sue if the state doesn't remove the wall. Abbott tweeted Friday that the state “has the sovereign authority to defend our border."
The floating barrier also provoked tension with Mexico, which says it violates treaties. Mexico's secretary of foreign relations asked the U.S. government to remove the buoys and razor wire in a June letter.
Fuentes sued over the buoys, arguing that border crossings are not covered by the Texas Disaster Act.
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As for the river islands, the Texas General Land Office gave the state Department of Public Safety access starting in April “to curb the ongoing border crisis."
“Additionally, the General Land Office will also permit vegetation management, provided compliance with all applicable state and federal regulations is upheld,” said a letter from the office's commissioner, Dawn Buckingham.
The Texas Military Department cleared out carrizo cane, which Buckingham's office called an “invasive plant” in its response to questions from the AP, and changed the landscape, affecting the river's flow.
Environmental experts are concerned.
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“As far as I know, if there’s flooding in the river, it’s much more severe in Piedras Negras than it is in Eagle Pass because that’s the lower side of the river. And so next time the river really gets up, it’s going to push a lot of water over on the Mexican side, it looks like to me,” said Tom Vaughan, a retired professor and co-founder of the Rio Grande International Study Center.
Fuentes recently sought special permission from the city and DPS to navigate through his familiar kayaking route.
“Since they rerouted the water on the island, the water is flowing differently,” Fuentes said. “I can feel it.”
The state declined to release any records that might detail the environmental impacts of the buoys or changes to the landscape.
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Victor Escalon, a DPS regional director overseeing Del Rio down to Brownsville, pointed to the governor's emergency disaster declaration. “We do everything we can to prevent crime, period. And that’s the job,” he added.
TRESPASSING TO STOP TRESPASSERS
For one property owner, the DPS mission cut him out of his land.
In 2021, as Eagle Pass became the preferred route by migrants crossing into the U.S., Magali and Hugo Urbina bought a pecan orchard by the river that they called Heavenly Farms.
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Hugo Urbina worked with DPS when the agency built a fence on his property and arrested migrants for trespassing. But the relationship turned acrimonious a year later after DPS asked to put up concertina wire on riverfront property that the Urbinas were leasing to the U.S. Border Patrol to process immigrants.
Hugo Urbina wanted DPS to sign a lease releasing him from liability if the wire caused injuries. DPS declined but still installed concertina wire, moved vehicles onto the property and shut the Urbinas' gates. That cut off the Border Patrol's access to the river, though it still leases land from Urbina.
“They do whatever it is that they want,” Urbina said this month.
The farmer, a Republican, calls it “poison politics.” Critics call it déjà vu.
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“I also really see a very strong correlation to the Trump and post-Trump era in which most of the Trump administration’s immigration policy was aggressive and extreme and very violative of people’s rights, and very focused on making the political point,” said Aron Thorn, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project.
“The design of this is the optics and the amount of things that they sacrifice for those optics now is quite extraordinary,” Thorn said.
DPS works with 300 landowners, according to Escalon. He said it is unusual for the department to take over a property without the landowner’s consent, but the agency says the Disaster Act provides the authority.
Urbina said he supports the governor’s efforts, “but not in this way."
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"You don’t go out there and start breaking the law and start making your citizens feel like they’re second-hand citizens,” he added.
Justice | 2 Houston police officers arrested on separate charges
Education | 6 major 'Destination 2035' changes coming to HISD
Extreme | Houston-area logs 3rd heat-related death of 2023
Discovery | U of H researchers find ruins of lost Maya city
For the latest and best from Chron, sign up for our daily newsletter here. | Not_Explicit |
We're analysing all the major VAR decisions throughout all 64 games at the Women's World Cup. History was made between New Zealand and Norway as a referee announced their VAR decision to the crowd at a major tournament for the first time.
After each big call, we examine it and explain the process both in terms of VAR protocol and the Laws of the Game.
VAR overturn: Penalty for handball by Hansen
What happened: It was the 87th minute when New Zealand's Malia Steinmetz attempted to cross into the area from the right flank, and the ball hit Norway defender Tuva Hansen just inside the area. Japanese referee Yoshimi Yamashita signalled for play to continue, but as soon as it stopped the VAR, Tatiana Guzmán of Nicaragua, began a check for handball.
VAR decision: Penalty, missed by Ria Percival
VAR review: The Women's World Cup is the first major test of FIFA's new VAR process, where the referee announces their decision to the crowd over their microphone. It's already featured in the Club World Cup and the Under-20 World Cup, but it's this tournament which will bring it to the masses.
FIFA will be delighted it was seen in action in the high-profile opening game, and that it seemed to run smoothly. At the same time, world football's governing body could not have wished for an easier decision to showcase its trial.
Everyone in the stadium knew the ball had hit Hansen, and it was obvious there was a claim for a handball penalty. Replays showed that Hansen had her arm away from her body, so it was a simple call for the VAR to send the referee to the monitor.
After Yamashita had reviewed the footage, a hush descended upon Eden Park as the home crowd waited for their team to be awarded the spot kick.
Yamashita stepped onto the pitch, made the TV sign and announced: "After on-field review the decision is ... penalty."
And upon the referee pointing towards the penalty spot, the crowd erupted in celebration, which meant her explanation of the decision was lost in the noise. After giving the decision, the referee says which player has been penalised, for what offence and any disciplinary action.
This VAR overturn was so simple it didn't really need that explanation, and Yamashita announcing the outcome certainly seemed to add a little more drama. The only possible doubt was whether the handball was in the area or just outside.
But it begs the question, what will happen when there is a controversial or complicated overturn, or an off-the-ball infringement is spotted which the crowd were unaware of before the review? Will the referee's explanation also be drowned out by the reaction of the crowd?
It's early days for this trial, as it would have been obvious under the old system if there was a penalty awarded by the referee pointing to the spot.
FIFA believes this is the answer to fans' frustrations over communication of VAR calls, but we still didn't get to hear what the VAR said to the referee -- and that's what fans really want.
Also, it only applies to overturns at the monitor. Early in the second half there was another handball penalty appeal, and a lengthy check by the VAR while play was stopped. The fans were offered no explanation for this, and instead had to rely on information on the big screen. | Not_Explicit |
McCarthy denies he promised Trump vote on expunging impeachments
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday denied making a promise to former President Trump that the House would vote to expunge his impeachments, shooting down a report that said the GOP leader pledged the vote as a way to temper tensions with the former president.
“There’s no deal,” McCarthy told reporters Thursday, “but I’ve been very clear from long before when I voted against impeachments that they did it for purely political purposes.”
“I support expungement but there’s no deal out there,” he added.
Those comments contradict a Thursday morning report from Politico Playbook that McCarthy assured Trump that the House would vote to erase his impeachments, citing a source close to Trump and familiar with the conversation.
The vow came after McCarthy, during an interview late last month, said he was unsure if Trump was the “strongest” person to beat Trump in 2024, reportedly landing him in hot water with the president.
McCarthy launched a clean-up effort later that day, telling the conservative Breitbart News in a subsequent interview that “Trump is “Biden’s strongest political opponent,” sending out a fundraising blast with the same message, and, according to The New York Times, calling the former president for a conversation that two sources characterized as an apology.
But according to Politico, Trump wanted an endorsement from McCarthy following the squabble, which the Speaker was not willing to offer as he seeks to stay neutral in the primary. Instead, a source told the outlet, McCarthy promised that the House would vote to expunge his impeachments.
McCarthy later communicated, through aides, that he would hold the vote before August recess — which is set to begin next Friday — according to Politico, but he recently told the former president’s team that the vote will happen by the end of September, the outlet noted.
Either of those deadlines, however, would be difficult for McCarthy to meet. The House from now through September is working on spending bills for the annual appropriations process, with a Sept. 30 deadline looming. The process is already the source of disagreements within the GOP conference.
Even if McCarthy were to bring the expungement resolutions to the floor for a vote, it is unlikely that they would garner enough support to pass. The vote would push purple-district Republicans into a tough spot politically, and likely turn off others who are unsure if expungement is constitutionally possible.
A number of GOP lawmakers sounded cool to the idea of Thursday, and one House Republican — who said their views “represent a fair number of principled conservatives” — said they would likely oppose any effort to erase the punishments.
“I have every expectation I’ll vote against expungement, and I have every expectation that I will work to bring others with me,” the lawmaker said, noting that they communicated that position with leadership.
McCarthy voiced support for expunging both of Trump’s impeachments last month, telling reporters that one of the rebukes “was not based on true facts” and the other was “on the basis of no due process.” He said it was “appropriate” to expunge them “because it never should have gone through.”
The House — led by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — voted to impeach Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in late 2019, in response to his threat to withhold U.S. military aid to Ukraine unless leaders in Kyiv launched an investigation into Joe Biden, his political opponent. No Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the punishment.
Then in early 2021, the House impeached Trump for a second time following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, penalizing him for “incitement of insurrection.” That time around, 10 Republicans voted to impeach. Just two of them — Reps. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) and David Valadao (R-Calif.) — are still in Congress.
In both scenarios, however, Republicans in the Senate acquitted Trump.
Immediately after the Capitol riot, McCarthy took to the House floor and declared that Trump bore “responsibility” for the violence. But when it became apparent that the Republican Party was remaining loyal to Trump, he reversed his stance, meeting with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida a few weeks later. He later claimed that Trump did not “provoke” the attack.
House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) are leading the effort to expunge Trump’s impeachments. Greene sponsored the resolution for the first impeachment, relating to Ukraine, and Stefanik is taking the lead on the second, pertaining to Jan. 6.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Not_Explicit |
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How to unblock South Korean Netflix
South Korean Netflix offers a wide range of popular Korean dramas, alongside 109 Oscar-winning films and the highest number of Emmy-winning titles offered by any of Netflix's global libraries. Unfortunately, you will be blocked if you try to access South Korean Netflix from outside the country. The only way to bypass this blockade is with a streaming-friendly VPN.
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Watch South Korean Netflix for free with ExpressVPN. | Not_Explicit |
Carlee Russell, the Alabama woman who returned home on July 15 after she was reportedly missing for two days, was never missing, Hoover Police Department Chief Nicholas Derzis told reporters at a news conference Monday.
Derzis read a statement he said was provided to police by Russell’s attorney, Emory Anthony, acknowledging “there was no kidnapping.”
“My client has given me permission to make the following statement on her behalf. There was no kidnapping on Thursday, July 13th 2023. My client did not see a baby on the side of the road. My client did not leave the Hoover area when she was identified as a missing person. My client did not have any help in this incident. This was [a] single act done by herself,” the statement, as read by Derzis, said.
“We ask for your prayers for Carlee as she addresses her issues and attempts to move forward. Understanding that she made a mistake in this matter, Carlee again asks for your forgiveness and prayers,” the statement continued.
Derzis said police have a meeting with Anthony scheduled to discuss the case, and they are in discussions with the Jefferson County District Attorney's office over “possible criminal charges related to this case.” He said there is no meeting with Russell or her family at present.
Derzis added that police will announce potential charges “when and if they are filed.”
The press conference on Monday came after police told the public last Wednesday that Russell searched for Amber Alerts and the movie "Taken" on her phone before her disappearance.
Russell also made searches related to bus tickets in the hours before she went missing, Derzis said.
"There were other searches on Carlee's phone that appeared to shed some light on her mindset," Derzis said, adding he would not share them out of privacy.
"Taken," the 2008 movie starring Liam Neeson, centers around a young woman who is abducted and the quest to save her from her kidnappers.
ABC News has reached out to Anthony and Russell's family for comment.
Russell told police that she was taken by a male and a female when she stopped to check on a toddler she saw on the highway, Derzis said last Wednesday.
"She stated when she got out of her vehicle to check on the child, a man came out of the trees and mumbled that he was checking on the baby. She claimed that the man then picked her up, and she screamed," he said at the time.
Asked if investigators saw a man abduct Russell in the surveillance video of the interstate, Derzis said that they did not.
Russell called 911 on July 12 at around 9:30 p.m. ET to report a toddler on Interstate 459 in Alabama before her disappearance, but the Hoover Police Department said in a press release last Tuesday that investigators did not find any evidence of a child walking on the side of the road.
"The Hoover Police Department has not located any evidence of a toddler walking down the interstate, nor did we receive any additional calls about a toddler walking down the interstate, despite numerous vehicles passing through that area as depicted by the traffic camera surveillance video," the press release said.
"People have to understand that when someone says something like this, we put every available resource -- everybody comes from a state, local, federal -- it's just a lot of work," he said last week.
Derzis was also asked last week if the next time a woman of color goes missing, the case may not be taken seriously. He replied: "We investigate every crime to the fullest just like we have this one."
ABC News' Nadine El-Bawab and Mariama Jalloh contributed to this report. | Not_Explicit |
From July 1 to July 24, Scott and his PAC, Trust in the Mission, spent a combined $3.1 billion on television and digital ads for the 2024 presidential primary, according to AdImpact. The pro-Scott super PAC also placed a $40 million TV and digital ad reservation in addition to $7 million slated for August — the first campaign to do so post-Labor Day.
If this substantial spending continues, Scott has the potential to slip into third place behind the former president and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
This is significant as Scott and some outsider candidates are slightly rising in some state polls, narrowing their margin between themselves and DeSantis. The South Carolina senator reached double digits in Iowa and South Carolina, two GOP primary battleground states.
In Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, Scott's Trust in the Mission PAC reserved $19.9 million, making the PAC the biggest spender of the presidential race at $25.9 million. On July 21, one day later, the pro-Scott PAC bumped its total spending up to $30.8 million.
Pro-Scott spending nationwide sits at $31.9 million, over $10 million more than pro-Trump spending and over $15 million more than pro-DeSantis spending, as of July 20.
#Election2024: In the last 2 days, we've seen Trust in the Mission PAC (Pro-Tim Scott) reserve $19.9M in IA, NH, and SC. They're now the highest spender of the Presidential race ($25.9M).— AdImpact Politics (@AdImpact_Pol) July 20, 2023
Pro-Scott spending now stands at $31.9M nationwide.
Pro-Trump: $21.6M
Pro-DeSantis: $16.7M
DeSantis himself has trickled down to a 19.3% RCP average, a slight dip from his ratings in March and early summer where he broke or hit around 30%. Trump maintains a significant lead, with Real Clear Politics marking him at an average of 51.0%.
Still, Trump's super PAC, MAGA Inc., and DeSantis's super PAC, Never Back Down, remain the top ad spenders, with the former spending $19.9 million and the latter spending $15.6 million. Scott sits in fourth place with $4.3 million spent on ads.
DeSantis, Scott, Trump, as well as former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie all qualify for the Republican National Committee's first primary debate on Aug. 23.
Scott is counting on the debates to help him present himself as a compelling and optimistic alternative to Trump, as big-money Republican donors are reportedly dissatisfied with their options. If Trump does not appear at the RNC debate, for which he is still noncommital, it could be a showdown between DeSantis and Scott. | Not_Explicit |
President Biden brushed off and smiled at reporters who peppered him with questions Tuesday evening about a potential impeachment by Republicans in the House.
Following a speech in the East Room of the White House about expanding access to mental health care, Biden made his way to the exit where a group of reporters eagerly asked for his thoughts about the growing discussion by Republicans to impeach him.
Amid numerous questions, one reporter asked, "Mr. President, McCarthy says he may [consider] an impeachment inquiry to get to the bottom of —"
Smiling from ear to ear in one clip shared to social media, Biden quickly passed by the noisy group of reporters.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., says Republican lawmakers may consider an impeachment inquiry of Biden over claims of financial misconduct.
Speaking Tuesday at the Capitol, McCarthy said the questions House Republicans are raising about the Biden family finances need to be investigated. He said an impeachment inquiry "allows Congress to get the information to be able to know the truth" about whether Biden committed any wrongdoing.
An impeachment inquiry by the House would be a first step toward bringing articles of impeachment. Such a probe could be as lengthy or swift as the House determines, potentially stretching into campaign season.
Other Republicans also appear to be on board with the idea of impeachment, specifically House Freedom Caucus members.
"When he does speak to … impeachment, it carries a tremendous amount of weight. And that's why I think the ground shifted on that a little bit when he opened up the door," Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., said after a Freedom Caucus press conference on Tuesday. "I don't think there's any question that him speaking to that has caused a paradigm shift."
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., suggested there would be "an uprising" against Biden if the House did not move forward with trying to remove him.
"Look, the evidence is mounting against this guy. Look at what he’s done," Norman said. "What Donald Trump’s done with papers pales in comparison."
Norman said there was a "difference of opinion" on whether to take such a severe step but dismissed the idea of risking an impeachment vote that fails.
"Some people think that what he’s done isn’t that bad. A lot of us in general — the public, it’s gonna be an uprising against this guy, I think, at the end of the day."
McCarthy predicted Monday that Republicans will gather enough evidence soon to mount an impeachment inquiry against Biden, as the corruption scandal enveloping him and his son Hunter continues to grow.
McCarthy made reference to a relatively new revelation from the House Oversight Committee that — while Joe was vice president — Hunter Biden "capitalized" on a financial relationship with a Romanian national later convicted on corruption charges.
According to prepared remarks from House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., in June, the Bidens received more than $1 million in 17 increments.
McCarthy, during an appearance on Fox News, said that 16 of those 17 payments went to what he described as "Biden shell companies" while President Biden was vice president. According to Comer's prepared remarks, the elder Biden had been "lecturing Romania on anti-corruption policies" while instead being a "walking billboard for his … family to collect money."
"When President Biden was running for office, he told the American public that he's never talked about [Hunter's] business. He said his family has never received a dollar from China, which we now prove is not true," McCarthy said on "Hannity."
He said evidence and legitimacy of their caucus' probes are mounting, as he described the two IRS investigators who testified before Congress last week as "some of the most credible" to come forward.
McCarthy cited the FBI 1023 form wherein a confidential human source told the bureau that Biden was paid $5 million by a Burisma executive while he was vice president and while Hunter was on the board.
Biden has long denied discussion or involvement in Hunter's business deals, recently rebuffing a New York Post reporter who asked why he is reportedly referred to as the "big guy" in the FBI form — which is the same nickname purportedly used as a pseudonym in a message gleaned from previously released documentation connected to Hunter.
McCarthy on Tuesday gave no timeline for launching an impeachment inquiry into Biden.
Fox News' Charles Creitz and The Associated Press contributed to this report. | Not_Explicit |
Grand Blanc School Board member charged in alleged false electors scheme
GRAND BLANC, Mich. (WNEM) - A Grand Blanc School Board member has been charged for her reported role in a scheme to pick a fake slate of electors in the 2020 presidential election.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged 16 people with felonies for their roles in the alleged false electors scheme after the 2020 presidential election.
Among the 16 accused is 55-year-old Grand Blanc School Board member Amy Facchinello. She is charged with multiple felonies for conspiracy and forgery, accused of signing fraudulent election certificates claiming Donald Trump won the state in the 2020 presidential election.
The felonies Facchinello faces include forgery, election law forgery, uttering and publishing, and related conspiracy charges, some of which come with penalties of up to 14 years behind bars.
Nessel said the accused met covertly in the basement of Michigan Republican Party headquarters to sign their names to certificates claiming they were the elected and qualified electors.
“That was a lie. They weren’t the duly elected and qualified electors. And each of the defendants knew it. They carried out these actions with the hope and belief that the electoral votes of Michigan’s 2020 election would be awarded to the candidate of their choosing. Instead of the candidate that Michigan voters actually chose,” Nessel said.
This is not the first time Facchinello has made headlines.
During the pandemic, she was an ardent opponent of mask mandates. In 2021, Grand Blanc students, parents, and community members rallied to have Facchinello recalled after she repeatedly promoted QAnon-related material on her social media accounts.
In 2022, residents called for her resignation after her reported involvement in the scheme for which she is now charged.
Facchinello is not the only elected official facing charges. The current mayor of Wyoming, Kent Vanderwood, was also charged in the false elector scheme.
TV5 reached out to Amy Facchinello for comment but has not yet heard back.
One member of the Grand Blanc School Board did respond to TV5 saying they had no comment.
Subscribe to the TV5 newsletter and receive the latest local news and weather straight to your email every day.
Copyright 2023 WNEM. All rights reserved. | Not_Explicit |
The mood remained buoyant as a sea of yellow and green filled Stadium Australia at Sydney Olympic Park, becoming part of the biggest crowd ever for a women’s soccer match in Australia, announced at 75,784 on Thursday.
“Who wouldn’t want to be here for the first match?” asked Katie Lynn, who traveled from Adelaide, 850 miles (1,370 kilometers) away, with girlfriend Jasmine Williamson. “I have not been to a sporting event this big before. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Williamson summed up the mood perfectly: “People that aren’t even football fans are interested.”
Sydney’s famed sporting atmosphere seemed subdued in the days leading up to the match. But game day brought out the fans, including a man dressed in a kangaroo costume who identified himself only as “Skippy.”
“Just coming down on the train, people were everywhere,” said Vanessa Ronksley, who lives in Sydney's eastern beachside suburb of Coogee. “We can feel it now.”
Long-time friends Anthony Dunne and Kiaran Bannon were among those who stopped by the FIFA Fan Festival at Tumbalong Park, on the southern edge of Darling Harbour. They came from Ireland to watch their national team’s first-ever Women’s World Cup match.
“Even before we (Ireland) qualified, we said, ‘If we get through, we’re going,’” Dunne said. “My girlfriend was in work, and pregnant at the time, and I rang her after the (qualifying) match, and basically asked for permission.”
The excitement of the Australian fans was dampened for a while by the announcement an hour before kickoff that Matildas star and captain Sam Kerr would miss the match because of a calf muscle injury. She will also miss the July 27 match against Nigeria in Brisbane.
But Australia’s 1-0 victory gave reason for fans to be jubilant, even in Kerr’s absence.
“I haven’t stopped crying,” said Canberra resident Lydia Randall, who was in Canada in 2015 when Australia reached the World Cup quarterfinals. "All the girls deserve this.”
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Abby Halpin and Zeke Palermo are students at the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.
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AP Women’s World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | Not_Explicit |
Leon Marchand of France set the world record in the men's 400-meter individual medley Sunday, breaking the last individual mark that Michael Phelps had held from his illustrious swimming career.
Marchand cruised to the gold medal in 4 minutes, 2.50 seconds at the world championships in Fukuoka in southwest Japan. That broke the long-standing mark of 4:03.84 set by Phelps at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Phelps had held individual world records in five different races. He still is part of the world records set by the United States in the 4x100 and 4x200 freestyle relays.
Marchand swims at Arizona State and is coached by Bob Bowman, the coach of the American team at the world championships. He is a potential hometown superstar going into next year's Paris Olympics and will also be the favorite in the 200 IM.
He finished 4.06 seconds ahead of silver medalist Carson Foster of the United States. Japan's Daiya Seto took the bronze, coming in nearly seven seconds behind Marchand.
It was the second of three world records to fall on the opening day of the swimming events at the World Aquatics Championships. Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus of Australia set the record in a star-filled women's 400-meter freestyle field with a time of 3:55.38, finishing more than three seconds ahead of Katie Ledecky. Australia also set the record in the 4x100 women's freestyle relay in 3:27.96.
In other results, Australia's Sam Short powered to victory in the men's 400 freestyle to dethrone compatriot Elijah Winnington.
Short, 19, crossed the line in 3:40.68 to narrowly beat Olympic champion Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia by 0.02 seconds. Germany's Lukas Martens was 1.52 seconds behind to take the bronze medal.
Winnington, who won the title in Budapest last year, was seventh out of eight competitors.
In the 4x100 men's freestyle relay, Australia took the gold in 3:10.16, with Italy earning the silver (3:10.49) and the United States the bronze (3:10.81) as all three countries automatically qualified for the Paris Games.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. | Not_Explicit |
More than a dozen state lawmakers in Utah are poised to endorse Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in his run for the White House, giving him a key boost in a heavily Republican state that has somewhat shied away from former President Donald Trump in recent years.
The endorsement comes after DeSantis met with the group of legislators in Salt Lake City on Friday, bringing the Florida governor’s total number of endorsements from state lawmakers to 270. The meeting was led by Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, who is set to hold a fundraising event for DeSantis later in the evening.
“Gov. DeSantis is a strong conservative leader who knows how to get things done and has the record to prove it,” Adams said in a statement. “Now more than ever, our nation needs an energetic executive leader who will get right to work for the American people on Day One."
The mass endorsement elevates DeSantis in the deeply red state as the Florida governor seeks to reboot his campaign and close the gap between himself and Trump. Although Trump remains a front-runner by wide margins in national polling, the former president is neck-and-neck with DeSantis in Utah.
Although Utah is reliably red — Republican presidential candidates have won the state in 17 of the last 18 elections — voters have increasingly shifted away from Trump since he left office in 2020. Several state leaders have also come out against the former president, with Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) telling CBS News earlier this month he hoped the Republican Party would move on from Trump.
“I think we have lots of amazing choices, and I’m really hopeful that we can turn the page and try something else,” he said. “Someone who can win, which I think is important, and I think any of those governors could win and I certainly hope we’ll give them a chance.”
DeSantis’s trip to the Beehive State comes as the Florida governor seeks to overcome financial struggles and lackluster growth in the polls since launching his campaign in May. The Florida governor fired roughly a dozen staffers last week, raising questions over how DeSantis will shift his strategy over the coming months.
Trump continues to lead by at least 30 points in national polling, with DeSantis the runner-up in almost every survey. An average of roughly 51% of voters say they’d back Trump compared to just 19% for DeSantis, according to data from FiveThirtyEight. | Not_Explicit |
Your favorite influencer just bought a vivid new shade of lipstick, and it suits her perfectly. You’re admiring the product on TikTok, and with only a few taps, without stopping the stream, you can buy the exact same shade too. As TikTok intermingles social media and e-commerce, it is betting that this vision of shopping will knock aside rivals in the Southeast Asia market.
The short-form video streaming giant, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, is in a race to dominate e-commerce in the region. Facing growing regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. — the biggest market for the app with 116 million users — TikTok is increasingly investing in its second biggest market: Indonesia, which had 113 million app users as of April, according to Statista. Outside Indonesia, it’s ramping up its focus on Thailand and Malaysia too.
In June, TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew said the company planned to invest “billions of dollars” in Southeast Asia, with Indonesia playing a critical part in the strategy. | Not_Explicit |
NEW YORK, July 25 (Reuters) - The sole person convicted at trial of defrauding donors to an online campaign to build Donald Trump's signature wall along the U.S.-Mexico border was sentenced on Tuesday to 5-1/4 years in prison.
Timothy Shea's sentence was the longest imposed over the "We Build the Wall" campaign, which federal prosecutors said raised more than $25 million from hundreds of thousands of donors.
Two other defendants, who pleaded guilty, received shorter prison terms. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was also charged in the case, but Trump pardoned him in the final hours of his presidency.
A Manhattan jury in October found Shea, of Castle Rock, Colorado, guilty on two conspiracy counts and one count of obstruction of justice after a one-week trial. An earlier trial ended last June in a hung jury.
In sentencing Shea, 52, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres said he helped his co-defendants launder looted donor funds through shell companies, even as they claimed all the money was going to build the wall, and kept $180,000 for himself.
"They hurt us all by eroding the public's faith in the political process," Torres said at a hearing in Manhattan federal court.
The sentence matched the recommendation by the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan, which brought the case.
Prosecutors argued in court papers that he viewed the campaign as a "personal piggybank" and tried to deflect blame for his misconduct.
Shea's defense lawyer had sought a prison term of about two years. He said the fundraising plan was not Shea's idea, and that while Shea was paid he did actual work for the project.
Two other defendants, the campaign's leader Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, pleaded guilty and were sentenced in April to 4-1/4 years and three years in prison, respectively. Torres said on Tuesday their health issues were significant mitigating factors.
Bannon was criminally charged last September by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg with state law violations arising from the wall campaign.
Bannon pleaded not guilty and faces a trial next May 27. Presidential pardons do not cover state prosecutions.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Not_Explicit |
Cambodia's long-term leader is almost certain to extend his party's rule at an election on Sunday where there no serious challengers.
Voters turning up to the polls in Phnom Penh told the BBC they expected the Cambodian People's Party to sweep all 125 seats in parliament again.
Hun Sen, who has been in power for 38 years, faces no real challenge after the only credible opposition party was disqualified in May.
Critics have called the vote a sham.
"It's a rigged election because there are no real strong opposition parties," one voter, an aid worker in Phnom Penh, told the BBC earlier this week.
Western nations, including the US, have also expressed concerns about the integrity of the vote.
Opposition lawmakers this year have reported violent attacks, with Human Rights Watch reporting the government stepped up intimidation and arbitrary arrests of political opposition in the run-up to the poll.
In May, the government barred the country's main opposition party, the Candlelight Party, on a technicality. The National Election Commission said the party was missing paperwork, which it had not needed for the local elections last year.
Candlelight had won 22% of the vote last year - and analysts say Hun Sen saw them as a potential threat to his rule.
Hun Sen has become increasingly authoritarian in his rule, political analysts say.
Earlier this year, leading opposition figure Kem Sokha was sentenced to 27 years prison on alleged treason charges, and key news outlet Voice of Democracy shut down.
It is the second election in a row where Hun Sen has targeted democratic institutions and crippled the opposition before voting day, analysts say.
In 2018, his Cambodian People's Party won every single seat in the 125-seat National Assembly after the main opposition alliance was dissolved by the politically- controlled courts.
Seventeen other parties are participating in this year's election, but almost all are too small, new or are aligned with the ruling party to be considered credible challengers.
The vote comes at an uncertain time for Cambodia's economy - with locals reporting struggles with rising fuel prices, stagnant wages and growing debts.
While Hun Sen is campaigning for re-election, he has flagged that this may be his last term. In 2021, he said would hand over control to his eldest son who currently commands the Royal Cambodian Army.
Han Manet is a first-time candidate for a parliament seat this election and led the final day of party rallies in Phnom Penh on Friday.
However it's unclear if of when his father will relinquish control.
Hun Sen's party has won all six of the national elections held every five years since the 1990s, when the UN helped the Southeast Asian nation of 16 million people become a functioning democracy post decades of civil war and the murderous Khmer Rouge regime.
Over four decades, he has consolidated power through control of the military, police and moneyed interests. Observers say he has dispatched opponents through co-opting, jailing or exiling them. | Not_Explicit |
Kotak Mahindra Bank Q1 Results Review - Strong Performance Led By Robust Other Income: Motilal Oswal
Margin contracts 18 basis points QoQ; asset quality steady.
BQ Prime’s special research section collates quality and in-depth equity and economy research reports from across India’s top brokerages, asset managers and research agencies. These reports offer BQ Prime’s subscribers an opportunity to expand their understanding of companies, sectors and the economy.
Motilal Oswal Report
Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. reported a robust quarter, with standalone profit after tax increasing 67% YoY to Rs 35 billion (14% beat), driven by higher treasury gains and dividend income of Rs 3 billion from subs.
Consolidated profit after tax grew 51% YoY to Rs 41.5 billion.
Kotak Mahindra Bank's advances grew 17% YoY (3% QoQ) to Rs 329 billion, while margin contracted by 18 bp QoQ to 5.6%. Deposit growth was steady, though the current account and savings account mix moderated 380 bp QoQ due to a shift in savings account deposits toward high-yielding ActivMoney product launched by the bank.
Gross slippages increased 46% QoQ to Rs 12 billion, of which Rs 2.9 billion were upgraded in Q1 FY24. Higher slippages and healthy recoveries held gross non-performing asset/net non-performing asset ratios stable at 1.77%/0.4%.
We increase our FY24/FY25 profit after tax estimates by 7%/5% and revise our target price to Rs 2,170 (3.0 times FY25E book value and Rs 560 for subs). Maintain 'Neutral'.
Click on the attachment to read the full report:
DISCLAIMER
This report is authored by an external party. BQ Prime does not vouch for the accuracy of its contents nor is responsible for them in any way. The contents of this section do not constitute investment advice. For that you must always consult an expert based on your individual needs. The views expressed in the report are that of the author entity and do not represent the views of BQ Prime.
Users have no license to copy, modify, or distribute the content without permission of the Original Owner. | Not_Explicit |
- Summary
- Companies
- Two pilots killed in crash, first fatalities of wildfires
- More flights return tourists home from Rhodes
- Prosecutor launches investigation into cause of fires
- State broadcaster says 10% of island's land area burned
RHODES, Greece, July 25 (Reuters) - Two Greek pilots were killed when their plane fighting wildfires crashed on Tuesday, and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned of tough days ahead with blazes destroying homes and forcing tourist evacuations from the island of Rhodes.
The captain and co-pilot of the Canadair CL-215 plane were both killed when their aircraft crashed on the island of Evia, east of Athens, the air force said - the first fatalities in the current set of wildfires in Greece.
It gave their ages of the men as 34 and 27 respectively,
State broadcaster ERT earlier showed footage of the plane dropping water over a fire and then crashing into a hillside and bursting into flames.
Hundreds of firefighters, helped by forces from Turkey and Slovakia, were battling blazes that have raged on the island of Rhodes since Wednesday and resurged in hot, windy conditions. More emergency flights were due to take holidaymakers home.
Mitsotakis said on Tuesday the next days would be difficult, with conditions possibly improving after Thursday.
"All of us are standing guard," he said. "In the face of what the entire planet is facing, especially the Mediterranean which is a climate change hot-spot, there is no magical defence mechanism, if there was we would have implemented it."
An assessment by scientists published on Tuesday said human-induced climate change had played an "absolutely overwhelming" role in the extreme heatwaves that have swept across North America, southern Europe and China this month.
In Greece, a prosecutor on Rhodes launched an investigation into the causes of the fires and the preparedness and response of authorities, state broadcaster ERT said. It said about 10% of the island's land area had burned.
'UNPRECEDENTED ORDEAL'
Lefteris Laoudikos, whose family owns a small hotel in the seaside resort town of Kiotari, one of the epicentres of the fire over the weekend, said its 200 guests - mainly from Germany, Britain and Poland - evacuated in rental cars.
He said his father, cousin and two others were trying to douse the flames using a nearby water tank.
"On Saturday when I saw the wind and that there were no planes, I told everyone 'we're going to burn today,'" he said.
"My father saved the hotel. I called him, and he didn't want to leave. He told me 'if I leave there will be no hotel'."
John Hatzis, who owns three unaffected hotels in northern Rhodes, said the island needed to welcome back tourists.
"After the superhuman efforts to contain the fire we need superhuman efforts to restart tourism now," he said.
Rhodes, one of Greece's biggest islands, is among its top summer destinations, attracting about 1.5 million foreign tourists in the summer months.
About 20,000 people had to leave homes and hotels in Rhodes over the weekend as the inferno spread and reached coastal resorts on the verdant island's southeast, after charring land, killing animals and damaging buildings.
After a blaze in the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, in 2018 killed 104 people, Greece has taken a more proactive approach towards evacuations. But critics say it has not improved its ability to put out fires that are common in summer, though more intense in this year's heatwave.
The mayor of Rhodes said on Facebook the island was facing an unprecedented ordeal.
There were also fires on the island of Corfu.
Greece has seen very high temperatures in recent weeks and they are set to rise through Wednesday to exceed 44 Celsius (111.2 Fahrenheit) in some areas.
Around 3,000 holidaymakers had returned home by plane by Tuesday and tour operators cancelled upcoming trips. TUI (TUI1n.DE) dropped flights to Rhodes through Friday. It said it had 39,000 customers on Rhodes as of Sunday evening.
Tourism accounts for 18% of Greece's economic output and one in five jobs. On Rhodes and many other Greek islands, reliance on tourism is even greater.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Not_Explicit |
Trump rages over legal problems on Truth Social
Former President Trump vented about his ongoing and potentially impending legal issues on Truth Social on Sunday, lobbing accusations of politicization against the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the prosecutors investigating him.
The DOJ appears to be close to potentially filing charges against the former president over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and broader efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump announced last week that he had received a letter informing him that he was a target of the investigation and had four days to decide whether to appear before the grand jury to make his case.
Trump and his allies have railed against the DOJ and special counsel Jack Smith for what they view as political motivation fueling the probes and the charges that have already filed against him, and the former president emphasized those attacks again Sunday.
“Every time you see these Radical Lunatics and their partners in the Fake News Media talking about the ‘Trials and Tribulations’ of President Donald J. Trump, please remember that it is all a coordinated HOAX… in order to STEAL ANOTHER ELECTION through PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT at levels never seen before in the U.S.” he posted.
“[Attorney General] Merrick Garland, Deranged Jack Smith, and coordinating Democrat ‘Prosecutors’ in New York and Atlanta, have become the Campaign Managers for the most corrupt and incompetent President in United States history, Joe Biden!” he said in another post.
Trump has already been charged in Manhattan with falsifying business records over hush money payments made to porn actress Stormy Daniels, and in federal court in Florida with various counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified and sensitive documents, including possible violations of the Espionage Act.
Smith, who is overseeing both the probes into the documents and the 2020 election efforts, emphasized the “gravity” of the charges facing Trump after he announced the decision in the documents case last month. He also defended the conduct of the DOJ and FBI on the cases, indirectly addressing the criticism that they have both received from Trump and his allies.
Trump also criticized the amount of money that has been spent on investigations into him overall and specifically from Smith’s investigations. A DOJ report revealed earlier this month that Smith spent $5.4 million during the first five months of his investigation, while other DOJ agencies assisting the investigation spent an additional $3.8 million.
The report showed that Robert Hur, the special counsel appointed to investigate President Biden’s handling of classified documents, spent $615,000 on the probe, and agencies assisting him spent $570,000.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Not_Explicit |
They used to go wild for villas by the Med and ski chalets in the Alps; now they are forking out for views of the Channel and hilly walks in Shropshire.
According to figures released this week by the English Housing Survey, the proportion of English owners of second homes who have properties in Europe has fallen again, with 60% of holiday homes located in the UK rather than outside it.
Ten years ago, the split was approximately even, with 51% of second homes located outside the UK, mainly in France or Spain.
Today, after Brexit – which stops British citizens who do not have a visa from spending more than 90 days in an EU country in any 180-day period – 60,000 people in England own second homes in France, compared with 89,000 in 2008.
Overall, fewer than 30% of second homes owned by people in England are in Europe, compared with 40% in 2012.
Annette de Vries, an estate agent in Monpazier, in the Dordogne, told the Times that the additional bureaucracy of Brexit had deterred many people from buying in France.
“Less British people are looking for houses than before,” she said. “The main reason is Brexit. It’s so much more difficult for British people to buy something here. They need health insurance and that’s very difficult for them.”
The newspaper reported that Sylvie Mayer, an estate agent in Huelgoat, Brittany, said: “Many Britons have left the area. Since last summer, a lot of them have sold their second homes because the paperwork got too complicated for them to spend time here.”
The government survey also shows that buying a second home in the UK is far more popular than it used to be.
The figures show 520,000 households now own second homes in the UK, up from 279,000 in 2008, with people who live in the south-east and London among the most likely to have access to a second home, followed by residents of the Midlands and the east of England.
The survey defines second homes as properties mainly used by owners or let to others as a holiday home, or properties occupied by their owners while they are working away from home.
The campaign group Generation Rent recently described the holiday-let sector as “out of control”.
Dan Wilson Craw, the group’s acting director, told the Guardian: “It has taken homes away from locals who grew up in holiday hotspots and people who want to work in the tourist industries, making these areas unsustainable.” | Not_Explicit |
Patrick Semansky/AP
toggle caption
A poster photo of U.S. Marine Corps veteran and former Russian prisoner Trevor Reed stands in Lafayette Park near the White House, March 30, 2022, in Washington. Reed, a former U.S. Marine who was released from Russia in a prisoner swap last year, has been injured while fighting in Ukraine, the State Department said.
Patrick Semansky/AP
A poster photo of U.S. Marine Corps veteran and former Russian prisoner Trevor Reed stands in Lafayette Park near the White House, March 30, 2022, in Washington. Reed, a former U.S. Marine who was released from Russia in a prisoner swap last year, has been injured while fighting in Ukraine, the State Department said.
Patrick Semansky/AP
Trevor Reed, a U.S. Marine veteran who was freed from Russian prison in a prisoner swap last year, has sustained an injury while fighting in Ukraine, the State Department said.
State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters Tuesday that Reed is being treated for an injury in Germany.
"Mr. Reed was not engaged in any activities on behalf of the U.S. government and, as I indicated, we have been incredibly clear, warning American citizens, American nationals not to travel to Ukraine," Patel said.
Journalist James LaPorta of the news site The Messenger was the first to report the story, citing U.S. military officials as saying Reed had suffered shrapnel wounds from stepping on a land mine two weeks ago. The story added that Reed had joined a group of freelancers fighting on the side of Ukraine against Russia at some point last year.
The State Department spokesperson did not provide details about Reed fighting in Ukraine or his injury, but said a nongovernmental organization evacuated him for medical care.
Russia had detained Reed on charges of attacking a Moscow police officer in 2019, sentencing him the following year to nine years in prison.
But in April 2022, Russia released Reed in a prisoner exchange for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who had been serving a 20-year prison sentence in U.S. prison for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. | Not_Explicit |
The crown jewel in a recent revitalization project of a London industrial area is a “rolling bridge” made of squares powered by a hand crank.
The bizarre spectacle of two large squares gradually inverting the deck of the pedestrian footpath to allow boats to pass underneath a canal lends the new Cody Docks community in London a touch of Victorian-era chic tinged with steampunk madness.
Architect Thomas Randall-Page freely admits it’s not possible to justify everything about the square rolling bridge. It could have been cheaper, it could have been powered by hydraulics or electricity, or it could have been a much simpler design.
But its childish fun, its imaginative function nestled perfectly within its surroundings leaves Randall-Page believing it to be exactly what Cody Docks needs as it transitions from an old 19th-century industrial wharf where the Thames meets the tidal River Lea to a creative community.
Reopening the dock to the Lea’s waters required the removal of a dam and the introduction of a footbridge over a canal where barges would pass into a refurbished mooring.
“To move it from one position to another takes about 20 minutes,” says Randall-Page calmly. “It was important to have that manual aspect, partly because it’s a very low-energy solution in terms of you’re not relying on external power solutions, and partly because there’s a way in which that simplifies things; there’s a whole lot less that can go wrong.”
“If something does begin to go wrong you notice it, you literally feel it getting harder to move. So it’s kind of a haptic check-in process,” he said in a micro-doc about his bridge.
MORE BIZARRE ENGINEERING PROJECTS: Girl Surprised With Pet Dragon After Surviving Cancer and Making-a-Wish – ‘It’s a Marvel of Engineering’
For someone wondering how the square portals of the bridge roll, it’s because they’re mounted on rails built into the sides of the canal wall which undulate up and down like hills on the horizon. This symmetry allows the whole bridge structure to smoothly roll through 180 degrees to a fully inverted position facilitating the movement of boats from the river to the dock.
Randall-Page said his design was inspired by a visit to a friend’s boat. At times, he had to help his friend pass through canal locks, and the architect took an immediate liking to the low-tech yet smart and hands-on Victorian design of the lock mechanism.
“There’s something very nice about being able to look at the thing even if it’s stationary, and kind of be able to read something about how it works,” he said. Everything’s on show, the winches are on show, the tracks are on show, and if you’ve got your head screwed on you can follow the logic of how this thing works.”
WATCH the mini-doc below…
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Israel's governing coalition voted Monday to curb the supreme court's powers, setting the stage for continuing protests and a potential boycott of the military by enraged reservists in the country's biggest-ever domestic crisis.
The Knesset voted 64 to 0 for the measure, after members of the opposition boycotted the vote once it was clear that they had no hope of stopping the measure. The judicial reforms are part of a deeply contentious package of judicial changes sought by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government.
“We have taken the first step in a historic process to correct the judicial system,” Justice Minister Yarin Levin said from the Knesset rostrum.
The vote was a huge victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who left a hospital Monday morning to attend the vote after heart surgery and is currently on trial on corruption charges.
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Hundreds of thousands of protesters in favor of and opposed to the bill were on the streets of Israeli cities from starting Sunday morning. Earlier on Monday, police used water cannons to disperse demonstrators outside the Knesset; 19 were arrested. An estimated 150 companies, including Israel's two biggest banks, closed down for the day to protest the law.
Last-minute attempts to amend the bill failed and two compromise frameworks floated by a union leader and President Isaac Herzog were rejected, the Times of Israel reported..
The new law bars the courts from examining the “reasonableness” of cabinet and ministerial decisions.
“This is a national emergency,” Herzog said before the vote. “We have to reach an agreement.”
But within hours, as the voting process began, opposition Labor party leader and former prime minister Yair Lapid said there was no hope the bill would be softened.
"In the last few weeks we made every effort to reach broad agreements as we promised, but we had conditions and the main condition was to preserve Israeli democracy," Lapid said on Twitter. "With this government it is impossible to reach agreements that preserve Israeli democracy."
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said it was Lapid and his allies who had scotched any chance of consensus. “We left no stone unturned until the last minute but the opposition unfortunately opposed” compromise, he said.
The so-called "reasonableness" bill approved on Monday removes the supreme court's ability to overturn government decisions. Netanyahu's reforms would blunt the power of Israeli courts, which the ruling coalition accuses of overreach.
The prime minister was in parliament for the vote just hours after being discharged from hospital following emergency for a pacemaker on Saturday.
On Sunday night, U.S. President Joe Biden urged Netanyahu to slow down passage of the bill.
“Given the range of threats and challenges confronting Israel right now, it doesn’t make sense for Israeli leaders to rush this — the focus should be on pulling people together and finding consensus,” Biden told Axios in a statement.
Israel has been roiled by sometimes massive protests for seven months since the judicial package was first introduced in the Knesset.
Thousands of reservists, including air force pilots, have vowed to avoid service, an unprecedented display of dissent in the military. Former heads of Israel's army and security services, ex-chief justices, and legal and business leaders have all publicly opposed the judicial overhaul.
Netanyahu's coalition holds a 53 percent of the Knesset, with 64 out of 120 seats.
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A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that Donald Trump’s hush-money case involving Stormy Daniels would remain in New York state court, rejecting the former president’s bid to have the case be moved to a federal court.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein’s decision sets up Trump to stand trial in Manhattan as early as next spring—possibly the heart of peak campaign season as he vies for a return to the White House. Trump’s lawyers can appeal Hellerstein’s ruling to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.
In an “order and opinion granting motion to remand” obtained by The Daily Beast, Hellerstein wrote that Trump and his lawyers “improperly invoked” a U.S. code in hopes of getting the case’s jurisdiction shifted.
Defense attorneys argued the root of Trump’s charges were within the “color of his office” when he was president and belonged in a federal court. Hellerstein reportedly scoffed at that argument last month, however, foreshadowing Wednesday’s ruling.
The hush-money case was the first of a flurry of legal troubles to hit Trump this year. He was indicted in March and arrested a month later on allegations he schemed with then-lawyer Michael Cohen to save his 2016 presidential campaign by paying hush money to the porn star Stormy Daniels—a messy attempt to keep her quiet about an affair they had nearly a decade earlier.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg slapped Trump with 34 felony counts, accusing him of making fake business records to hide the hush-money and the reimbursements he provided to Cohen, who originally paid Stormy Daniels out of his own pocket.
Ever since his indictment, Trump’s lawyers have desperately tried to have the case moved to federal court, accusing Bragg of being biased. Trump also reportedly wanted to avoid Justice Juan Merchan, a state court judge who’s already presided over the criminal trial where a jury convicted the Trump Organization of tax fraud. | Not_Explicit |
Police have released innovative images of a fugitive wanted in connection with a 16-year-old murder in East Dunbartonshire.
Officers are still on the hunt for Derek Ferguson, 59, over the death of Thomas Cameron, 49, who was shot dead outside The Auchinairn Tavern in Bishopbriggs on 28 June 2007.
Intelligence gathered suggests Ferguson may have recently travelled between the southern part of the Netherlands and Spain - including Barcelona, the south coast and the Balearic Islands.
Officers from Police Scotland's Fugitive Active Search Unit (FAST) have now released animated images - named an EvoFIT - to show how Ferguson could look now.
The EvoFIT was developed with help from forensic psychologist Professor Charlie Frowd, of the University of Central Lancashire.
With an international arrest warrant in place, police are urging anyone who recognises Ferguson to get in touch.
Detective Chief Superintendent Vicky Watson said: "Our officers have carried out painstaking enquiries and research over the years to trace Ferguson and the new images released are a result of our investigations and the current intelligence picture surrounding his appearance.
"I would like members of the public to look at these images and get in touch with the investigation team if you recognise him and, most importantly, have information about his current whereabouts."
Read more:
One-legged British crime boss arrested in Thailand after five years on the run
A reward of up to £10,000 is on offer from Crimestoppers for information that leads to the arrest of Ferguson.
DCS Watson said: "I am aware that over the passage of time, loyalties and relationships change.
"Despite 16 years having passed, our investigation to trace Ferguson continues and underlines our unwavering commitment to achieve justice for the family of Thomas Cameron."
Ferguson is described as being between 5ft 2in and 5ft 6in in height. He has a small scar on his right jawline, a small piece missing from the top of his left ear, and was known to have various tattoos on his forearms, including a heart and a dagger. | Not_Explicit |
Video: The WTTW News Spotlight Politics team on the day’s biggest stories. (Produced by Alexandra Silets)
All Chicago businesses would be required to pay their workers the same minimum hourly wage, regardless of whether they earn tips, and all employees would be entitled to 15 days of paid time off under two proposals introduced to the Chicago City Council on Wednesday.
Taken together, the two proposals are likely to form the foundation of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s agenda when it comes to labor. A former organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, Johnson enjoyed the unanimous support of Chicago’s progressive labor organizations.
Johnson has endorsed the One Fair Wage national campaign, which has cast the push to end the tipped minimum wage as part of a larger fight for justice, saying workers who earn the so-called tipped minimum wage are more vulnerable to sexual harassment, wage theft and abuse than other employees.
But even with 25 cosponsors, the proposal to eliminate the tipped minimum wage by July 2025 failed to advance Wednesday, with Ald. Anthony Beale (9th Ward) preventing it from heading directly to a committee hearing and vote.
Johnson’s mayoral campaign platform called for an end to the tipped minimum wage, noting that those who rely on tips to earn a living wage are more likely to be Black and Latina women. Johnson was endorsed by the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois, which is part of the One Fair Wage campaign.
Ending the tipped minimum wage will be “good for workers, working families, and the future of our city,” Johnson said at an event organized by the One Fair Wage campaign.
“We have a moral obligation to make our people whole,” said Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th Ward), noting that the practice of allowing employers to pay their workers less than the minimum wage — as long as tips make up the rest — originated in slavery.
Fuentes said she was not concerned that the measure failed to advance Wednesday, telling reporters that she expects it to be part of Johnson’s proposed 2024 spending plan.
Fuentes said she and other supporters were open to delaying the elimination of the tipped minimum wage until July 2027, but not any longer.
Chicago’s minimum wage for most workers rose to $15.80 per hour on July 1, an increase of 40 cents. That comes two years after Chicago’s minimum wage hit $15 per hour after a six-year fight that energized the labor movement and fueled new laws designed to improve the working conditions for the city’s lowest-paid workers, who are disproportionately Black and Latino.
In 2019, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot blocked a proposal backed by progressive members of the City Council to eliminate the tipped minimum wage by 2023. That proposal faced intense opposition from restaurant industry groups.
Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa (35th Ward) said Wednesday workers who earn tips were left behind in 2019 when the City Council agreed to set the city’s minimum hourly wage at $15 starting in July 2021.
“We will fix that,” said Ramirez Rosa, Johnson’s floor leader.
The minimum hourly wage for employees of large Chicago businesses who earn tips rose by 48 cents on July 1 to $9.48 per hour, officials said.
Paying all workers the same minimum wage, regardless of what they earn in tips, will benefit Chicago’s restaurant industry and individual eateries, Ramirez Rosa said.
The push is also supported by Ald. Mike Rodriguez (22nd Ward), the chair of the City Council’s Workforce Development Committee.
Saru Jayaraman, the president of the One Fair Wage national campaign, said paying tipped workers the same minimum wage could help boost youth employment, a major goal of Johnson’s efforts to reduce crime and revitalize Chicago’s South and West sides.
The restaurant industry is the largest employer of Chicagoans age 16 to 24, and Fuentes said raising their wages could reduce homelessness and crime throughout the city.
A proposal to end the tipped minimum wage is likely to be a major point of negotiation during the debate over the 2024 spending plan, Johnson’s first, set to take place this fall.
The push is expected to face fierce opposition from the restaurant industry, who could push Johnson to phase out the tipped minimum wage over a longer period of time.
Leaders of the Employment Policies Institute urged the City Council to reject the proposal, saying it would lead to layoffs and lower earnings for restaurant employees.
A separate measure introduced Wednesday by Rodriguez would require Chicago employers to offer their workers one hour of paid leave for every 15 hours worked, regardless of whether they are sick.
That would entitle Chicago employees to 15 days of paid time off every year, according to the proposal backed by the Chicago Federation of Labor.
If approved, the measure would be the largest expansion of paid time off in any city in the United States, according to the Chicago Federation of Labor.
Starting in 2024, a measure signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker will require employers statewide to give their workers at least one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked. That will entitle employees to five days of paid time off every year, according to the law.
Because Chicago has a separate law, approved in 2016, requiring employers to give their employees paid sick leave, the state law exempts Chicago. Chicago employees earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours they work, or at least five days every year.
That measure passed after a fierce political battle, and has not been adjusted since.
The state law also exempts employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement in the construction industry and parcel delivery industry, and Chicago’s ordinance would not trump labor agreements, Rodriguez said. | Not_Explicit |