Question:
At least 32 people were killed on Wednesday when suspected nomadic Misseriya herders from Sudan attacked a village in the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei along the border of South Sudan, a local official said.

Abyei has been contested since South Sudan gained independence in 2011, while there have long been tensions between the South Sudanese Ngok Dinka community and the Misseriya herders who traverse the area looking for grazing.

Kuol Alor Kuol, the chief administrator of the Abyei area, told AFP that heavily armed Misseriya and allied militia attacked the village of Kolom early on Wednesday.

"Thirty-two people were killed among them children and women, and secondly about 24 people are wounded ... and about 15 people including children were abducted and 20 houses burned," Kuol said.

He said the wounded had been evacuated to a hospital in the town of Agok which is run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

In 2011, the UN Security Council deployed a peacekeeping force to the area after deadly clashes displaced some 100 000 people.

The United Nations Interim Security Force in Abyei (UNISFA) is made up entirely of Ethiopian troops, with some 4 500 soldiers on the ground.

UNISFA could not be immediately reached for comment on the attack.

The UN Security Council in 2018 warned that the situation in Abyei and along the Sudan-South Sudan border "continues to constitute a serious threat to international peace," and called on the two countries to show concrete progress on border demarcation and monitoring.

32 dead after tribal clashes on South Sudan border

A man waves a South Sudan flag in the town of Abyei. File picture: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters Johannesburg – At least 32 people have been killed, 15 abducted and dozens wounded after several attacks on a village in Kolom in the disputed town of Abyei in the South Sudan border area, the UN peacekeeping mission UNISFA said on Friday. “Our mission in Abyei has increased protection of civilian efforts after attacks that killed at least 32 people. The mission apprehended five armed group members and stepped up patrols and engagement at community levels,” UNISFA said in a post on Twitter. Local elders confirmed the deaths after armed nomadic herders from the Misseriya tribe carried out the attack on the rural Dinka Ngok village, burning down 19 houses during the violence. UNISFA spokesman Daniel Adekera told the Sudan Tribune that Thursday’s violence followed clashes between the two sides on Monday and Wednesday, which had already claimed 22 lives. The cause of the violence is unknown but conflict in the area has revolved around cattle rustling with the absence of police and administrative structures in Abyei exacerbating the situation.

The Dinka Ngok tribe has long called for a referendum to be held on the future of the area, which is currently part of Sudan, so that it can join South Sudan.

South Sudan ceded from Sudan in 2011 and this has been a cause of friction between the two countries due to the political and security vacuum in the 10,500 km area border area despite it previously being seen as a model of coexistence.

Due to the ongoing friction UNISFA deployed troops to the area to contain the situation and prevent any escalation as armed men from both sides converged on Kolom.

"UNISFA would like to reiterate that any presence of armed groups within the Abyei box other than its own troops is viewed by the mission as a violation of its mandate and will not hesitate to place responsibility on those engaged in such violations," Adekera said.

African News Agency (ANA)

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Jan 1 (ANI): People welcomed 2020 here by watching the first sunrise of the year at the Gateway of India on Wednesday morning.

"I had come to shoot the rising sun at the Gateway of India. There is a new feeling every year. I hope for the best in the new year. This time it is a bit cold in Mumbai which is unexpected," Om Singh, a city resident said.

"I have come from Varanasi. Watching the first sunrise here was a novel experience," Rani Singh, a tourist said.

"Watching the first sunrise of 2020 was a mystic experience. My best wishes to everyone on this occasion," Ruchika, another city resident said. (ANI)

Justice Minister Amir Ohana’s choice of Orly Ginsberg Ben-Ari as acting state prosecutor, defying Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit, is but the latest attempt by the caretaker government headed by the indicted Benjamin Netanyahu to undermine the rule of law. It also dovetails with Netanyahu’s battle cries against the State Prosecutor’s Office after the release of the attorney general’s decision to try him for bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

According to Mendelblit, the choice of Ginsberg Ben-Ari “doesn’t meet the necessary requirements for the position of acting state prosecutor” and that it “exceeds, in an extreme way, the scope of what is reasonable.”

Thus, he said, “there is a legal impediment to its approval.” According to Civil Service Commissioner Daniel Hershkowitz, the choice “is liable to erode the proper functioning of the state prosecutor.”

Ohana is neither interested in these arguments of substance nor in the facts that he is justice minister in a caretaker government, and that the country is in the midst of a third election cycle due to the deadlock stemming from Netanyahu’s legal predicament. Ohana was well aware of Mendelblit’s warnings when he announced his candidates for the position. Mendelblit made it clear that the justice minister must consult with him before the appointment, and not to deviate from his recommendation unless he presents compelling arguments. He even named the deputy state prosecutor for criminal affairs, Shlomo Lemberger, as his preference.

To make matters worse, the appointment was made at a particularly sensitive moment. Now the cases against the prime minister will be laid on the table of the state prosecutor, which will require “dealing with various legal aspects connected to the decision to try the prime minister,” as Mendelblit stressed in his opinion on Tuesday. “These are sensitive issues that require an even greater obligation to ensure the independence of the person holding the position, and above all the public appearance of independence.”

None of this prevented Ohana from defying Mendelblit and the Israeli Judicial Authority. True to the spirit of his commander, who spreads tales of a legal putsch and seeks “to investigate the investigators,” Ohana is abusing his temporary political power in an attempt to weaken the institution of the state prosecutor. Instead of respecting the circumstances and reducing his presence in the appointment process, Ohana seeks to squeeze everything he can get out of his temporary position.

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Mendelblit pledged in closed-door meetings in the Justice Ministry that he would refuse to defend the appointment of a person unqualified for the job. “I won’t be a part of it,” he told his colleagues. The issue of the appointment will probably end up in the High Court of Justice, and the court is not expected to approve it. Thus, the public has received another reminder of the urgent need to replace Netanyahu’s corrupt and messianic regime.

The above article is Haaretz’s lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.

Abstract

In response to the 2013-2016 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak primarily affecting Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, the World Health Organization (WHO) set out Guidance for Managing Ethical Issues in Infectious Disease Outbreaks, which covered social distancing, research in outbreak settings, and clinical care. This article assesses the Guidance’s recommendations on research and long-term storage of biological specimens during infectious disease outbreaks and argues that the Guidance does not provide adequate direction for responders’, researchers’, and organizations’ actions. It considers local persons’ access to benefits of research in the aftermath of outbreaks and preparedness for outbreaks, drawing on lessons from both the 2013-2016 EVD outbreak and ongoing research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Introduction

In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) published Guidance for Managing Ethical Issues in Infectious Disease Outbreaks.1 The Guidance arose in the context of the 2013-2016 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak that primarily affected the Western African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea; cases also arose in 7 other nations.2 That outbreak, declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) in August 2014,3 resulted in more than 28 000 suspected cases and 11 325 confirmed deaths.2

The WHO guidelines are particularly salient in light of the current EVD outbreak in the North Kivu and Ituri provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), declared a PHEIC in July 2019.4 They span the gamut of bioethical issues: public engagement, allocation of scarce resources, public health surveillance, duty to treat, clinical research, use of experimental interventions, and vulnerability in the context of international and domestic sources of structural inequality.1 Many, if not most, of these concerns are not new and have been raised in the context of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV),5 armed conflicts,6,7 and previous EVD outbreaks.8 Nonetheless, the document is important for its scope and particular focus on infectious disease outbreaks within the purview of the International Health Regulations (IHR), from which PHEIC declarations arise.9

Infectious disease outbreaks are, in cases like EVD, one of the only times scientists can study a disease in situ. Clinical data on EVD is generally only collected in the context of outbreak responses.10 Moreover, testing novel vaccines and interventions on humans is sometimes only possible in the context of outbreaks, especially when it would be too risky to pursue human challenge experiments (ie, intentionally infecting subjects).11 Subjects of scientific12 and therapeutic research have some claim to benefits that arise from knowledge generated through their involvement in science and medicine, as may the communities in which those subjects reside. What that claim entails and how it should be executed, however, is subject to debate.

The management of EVD continues to raise serious questions about what the obligation to share scientific and clinical benefits entails, how to discharge that obligation, and who ought to discharge it. In March 2019, it was reported that blood samples taken during the West African EVD outbreak, which were reportedly held by American and British authorities, were being withheld from researchers in the countries they were taken from.13 Among other values, security was used to justify limiting access, as Ebola virus is considered a pathogen with high potential for development into a biological weapon. In June 2019, reporting from the DRC detailed ongoing negotiations to make vaccines tested in Western Africa affordable for widespread use, a process that was in limbo because of policies not to disclose the price of development and manufacture of the vaccine.14 The same report noted that of the thousands of samples collected by predominantly Western responders from patients in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, neither the samples nor the proceeds from their sale and use in research had made their way back to their respective countries of origin. This circumstance was attributed, among other reasons, to the United States’ decision to not sign the Nagoya Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity,15,16 which would require mutually agreed-upon terms when exporting genetic samples from signatory countries (though, as some have argued, the ratification of the protocol by the host country alone may be sufficient to enforce this requirement15). As discussed below, the Guidance provides a broad framework for articulating what nations, including the United States, ought to do regarding benefit sharing during infectious disease outbreaks, but understanding why they ought to do it requires further interpretation, which we provide here.

Sharing Benefits of Research

Infectious disease outbreaks produce at least 3 broad classes of tangible objects or data that benefit individuals and communities. First, the treatment of patients produces clinical data that is useful in understanding the pathophysiology of disease, improving diagnosis and management, and improving public health surveillance. Second, collection of samples provides sequence data for humans and viruses, which are useful in the development of surveillance technologies, diagnostics, and medical interventions. Finally, the use of experimental interventions in outbreaks provides information and tangible products such as vaccines and therapeutics.1,17

Under principles of fair allocation of resources or equity, countries whose citizens have provided samples ought to have access to those samples.

The WHO claims all three of the above benefits should be shared.1 Section 10 of the Guidance states that clinical data must be shared rapidly to assist in responding to an outbreak. It notes that “every researcher who engages in generation of information related to a public health emergency or acute public health event with the potential to progress to an emergency has the fundamental moral obligation to share preliminary results once they are adequately quality controlled for release.”1 Regarding samples, the Guidance requires individuals and organizations involved in the long-term storage of samples to engage communities in dialogue about the conditions of storing, transferring, and sharing of those specimens for future use. Finally, the WHO states that existing international guidelines on research ethics mandate that individuals and communities participating in research should have access to any benefits that result from their participation. These points of guidance, however, are inadequate in the absence of a more thoroughgoing analysis of the ethical basis for benefit sharing.

The Moral Justification for Benefit Sharing

To begin, it might be asked why individuals and their communities ought to receive access to the benefits of science and medicine. A skeptic might argue that participants in research frequently give informed consent knowing that benefits may never arise.18 If participants or others enter freely into a contract with a researcher with no promise of access to benefits even if they do arise, a skeptic might then argue that there is no reason to believe this is an invalid form of contract.

We identify 4 major reasons—utility, equity, justice, and liberty—why benefit sharing is necessary and why researchers, institutions, companies, and governments are obliged to offer specific people and communities access to the benefits arising from some kinds of research. These reasons need not all apply to the same kinds of benefits, recipients, or providers; any one may suffice.19,20 These reasons, we argue further, are particularly salient in infectious disease outbreaks with implications for global health security—which often arise in resource-deprived communities that might be current or former victims of armed conflict or colonization—especially when such outbreaks occur in low- and middle-income countries.

Utility. Early intervention in an outbreak is better than a delayed response when an epidemic has had a chance to spread widely. Put in explicitly ethical terms, the utility of an intervention—its capacity to promote community or global well-being—is, all other things being equal, likely to be much higher the sooner we act. In the context of research on EVD, the utility of research and medicine is greatly diminished if countries and communities initially and directly affected by outbreaks are unable to access lifesaving interventions or data that would enable care. Insofar as we have an obligation to ensure that medical research promotes its stated benefits—in this case, preventing an EVD epidemic—we ought to make the results of research available.

Equity. The WHO defines inequities as “inequalities that are judged to be unfair, that is, both unacceptable and avoidable,” and notes that equity must be reached between countries.21 While some might argue that sharing the benefits of biomedical research can be very costly, it can be justified if it promotes equity. For example, blood samples from patients with EVD from Western African countries have been found to be very lucrative for their potential use in research and drug development, with one report indicating samples may fetch more than €3600 per 0.5 mL.14 Under principles of fair allocation of resources or equity, countries whose citizens have provided samples ought to have access to those samples, even if this access were to diminish the financial benefit organizations gain by selling those samples on the open market. This is not to say that, should resources be available, such samples ought not to be sold, only that samples first be shared with the appropriate researchers and countries. As with other areas of genetics and genomics, the potential for great innovation—or financial gain—is not sufficient to justify inequity in socially and economically disadvantaged groups who have been further harmed by an epidemic in their community.21

Justice. The nations that have most recently experienced EVD outbreaks have been subject to a legacy of colonialism, forced resource extraction, and exploitation by developed nations. The benefit produced for the West cannot be understated; for example, the United States of America received roughly 80% of the uranium ore that would form the core of the nuclear weapons created in the Manhattan Project from the Belgian-controlled Congo, at the cost of lives and resources from the land and people now known as the DRC.23 Contemporarily, the tantalum used in cellphones (among other electronics) is extracted from mines in the DRC, often under forced labor and slave-like conditions.24 Economic inequalities and corresponding health inequalities in the DRC are often rooted in historical and ongoing injustices perpetuated or strategically tolerated by developed nations. In this case, taking samples and clinical knowledge from bodies of sick patients in the DRC without commensurate benefits to those patients and their communities perpetuates and mirrors the historical injustice of resource extraction from DRC land and exploitation of bodies in the DRC.

A central demand of global health justice is to seek to repair people who have been victims of injustice.25 It is incumbent on developed nations to make available data, samples, and interventions as part of an effort to redress historical health, social, and economic injustices.

Liberty. Theories of contract typically presume a scheme of just initial acquisitions: we all start off with a fair amount of goods with which to trade.26 Under such a system, the skeptical argument as presented above would be justifiable as long as individuals made the informed choice to enter into scientific research (or medical care) with no expectation of return. Yet this is not the case due to the history of the region: the DRC’s health care system is underresourced; the nation is embroiled in civil conflict; and the country lacks a rival pharmaceutical industry on the scale of North America’s or Europe’s, in part because the resources of the developed world are built on theft and exploitation. As such, it is unlikely any individual contract can be meaningfully free and informed.

There is therefore an obligation to ensure redress so that vulnerable populations can negotiate contracts on fair terms, keeping in mind that leaving a people with only their bodies (including their blood) as resources to be sold seems to violate Article 4 of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights. (“No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms”.27) Benefit sharing during infectious disease outbreaks thus could form part of the transfers that count towards redressing these initial thefts. Other transfers would include capacity building in terms of local infrastructure and scientific resources.

Challenges to Benefit Sharing

Despite strong reasons to engage in benefit sharing, practical hurdles remain that the Guidance does not address. Sharing clinical data, for example, requires collecting sufficient amounts of it—and in the right formats—to be meaningful and providing a platform on which it can be accessed.28 These data might be the property of a variety of different actors and therefore subject to different kinds of ownership and legal regime.29 Moreover, securing consent to share clinical data collected from patients who were unable to give consent at the time of treatment may be difficult or impossible, given the potential of patients and next of kin to be displaced by outbreaks. However, we note that as these samples continue to be used and shared after the outbreak, investigators and their institutions might need to spend time and resources to secure consent for future work.

Samples pose different challenges. Samples can be costly to store, requiring expensive freezers and generators to maintain a continuous cold chain (ie, a refrigerated supply chain for medical supplies). Even with the capacity to store samples, laboratories in low- and middle-income countries may lack the appropriate molecular diagnostics to work with those samples. For some emerging infectious diseases that pose a serious safety or security threat, such as EVD, there may also be challenges in ensuring samples are stored in a way that secures them against theft or misuse—even inadvertently, such as occurred when a taxi functioning as a courier for samples was robbed in Guinea in 2014, with the bandits inadvertently making off with infected blood samples.30 While it might seem easiest and most efficient to ship samples to high-income countries that already have capacity for safe storage and handling, the aforementioned demands of justice and equity argue instead for establishing appropriate infrastructure within affected countries. One reason given for the taxi robbery in Guinea in 2014, for example, was that the Guinea Red Cross lacked its own vehicles in which to securely transport blood samples.31 Developing local infrastructure has the additional benefit of creating research, detection, and prevention facilities, which are of obvious utility and promote liberty.

A central question regarding the sharing of tangible products such as therapeutics or vaccines is cost. It is not sufficient to claim these products should be shared: a mechanism to pay for and distribute them needs to be found. In some cases, charitable donations or nongovernmental organizations such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance can serve this function. In others, it may be governments or drug companies that provide therapeutics or vaccines at reduced or no cost to those who need them—as did Merck, the manufacturers of the rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine, working with the US Department of Health and Human Services.32 Nevertheless, cost is not simply a matter of the cost of producing a vaccine or therapeutic procedure. Benefit sharing may also require necessary infrastructure, such as cold chains to store and deploy products once shared, research facilities and laboratories, or basic utility systems and roadworks.

In general, overcoming these infrastructural and other considerations requires addressing them early, ideally ahead of an outbreak. In the case of clinical data collection, developing accessible, standard platforms for data can be done well ahead of any emergency. In the case of vaccines and therapeutics, better national implementation of—and support for—the International Health Regulations33 can provide a basis for sharing that is equitable and negotiated ahead of time. And investment in nations’ health care infrastructure, including laboratories, and physical infrastructure (roads, water, power) before epidemics emerge can prevent outbreaks from becoming health emergencies.

Conclusion

The ongoing EVD outbreak in the DRC remains out of control. There are a range of challenges in resolving the epidemic, but one of them is securing access to the products of previous outbreaks to benefit those currently affected by the disease. The Guidance provides a principled basis for such access as well as for sharing benefits that will arise from the current outbreak in the DRC with those affected in order to better prepare for future Ebola virus disease outbreaks—which, given the past history of outbreaks in the region, we can assume with confidence will happen again.9 The underlying ethical principles of utility, equity, justice, and liberty are broad and subject to practical concerns, but they provide a roadmap for delivering the benefits of the life sciences to affected peoples.

Every change begins with a leadership decision. Making the decision to institute changes is not always easy. Being prepared, planning well, and being surrounded by a good team will make that decision a lot easier. Begin by putting yourself in a positive frame of mind. You are likely to experience higher than normal levels of stress and knowing this beforehand will give you the ability to be prepared mentally and physically. You will be the anchorperson and foundation, and with your steady hand will guide your team through the stressful events. Be a reassuring and active force throughout the whole process.

It is impossible to prepare for every contingency, but planning for the known is a must. Add time or extra room to the schedule for the unknowns. When you encounter an unexpected event, your schedule should not be put off by much if you have built in some leeway. It will provide that buffer that gives you and your team the ability to deal with the unknowns and keep rolling with the change process

Surround yourself with people that you can delegate to and be confident in their abilities and skills. Be precise and specific with your directions as when the change process begins you will be depending on these individuals and their talents. Communicating and providing feedback are the keys to successful delegation; make sure your team understands this. If communication fails or there is not accurate feedback the chances of a success are lessened.

An issue that sometimes arises when delegating is micro managing. Keep an eye out to not micro-manage as you can quickly lose track of events and it will take time away from your main duties. Delegating is a skill that takes time as you must first learn the strengths and weakness of your team and know what tasks you can and cannot hand out. It may not be possible to always delegate, but when it can be done it will provide a great resource.

Always be available during the change process. Before the change prepare your friends and family that you may not be available for social events. Reassure your team that you are there for them and you are here to provide them with the necessary resources to lead them through the change. Stress to them that you are available and focused on keeping the communications lines open.

Always be aware of rumors, they will happen before during and after the change. Do not ignore any rumor, put out honest and clear communication as soon as possible. Reassure your team that if they hear a rumor to seek out more information from a reliable source. Remind them that spreading rumors helps no one and will cause more harm than good.

Not everyone will agree on the change. Keep in mind that these types of feelings are normal, as people generally do not enjoy change and are sometimes made nervous by it. You will likely encounter pushback and resistance by a number of team members. Provide facts and data to show why the change is happening and reassure them the need and benefits of the change. These types of individuals are best suited to be educated about the change with information.

If you are encountering an extreme case of pushback, provide them with some choices that still fall within the spectrum of the intended change. They should then feel more involved in the process and it will help alleviate the negative mindset they may be experiencing.It is vitally important to make sure that all stakeholders and employees are on board with a change.

In order to continue increasing awareness and to build desire to support the upcoming change; the change management team must reach out to the organization at large. The force field analysis, developed by German social psychologist Kurt Lewin helps a change management team to:

• Identify pros and cons of an option prior to making a decision

• Explore what is going right — and what is going wrong

• Analyse any two opposing positions.

If concerns or issues arise, then steps must be taken to ensure awareness is continually raised and that desire to support the change is increased. Strategies that can help the change management team responsively address employees’ concerns include:

• Engaging employees, providing forums for people to express their questions and concerns

• Equipping managers & supervisors to be effective change leaders and managers of resistance

• Orchestrating opportunities for advocates of the change to contact those not yet on board

• Aligning incentive and performance management systems to support the change.

Change is not exempt from Murphy’s Law. And even if something isn’t going wrong, change management team members must constantly be observing, listening, and evaluating the progress and process during a change. Below are several tools to help the team accomplish this.

A feedback form is used to gather information from those involved in a change to help shape the remaining course of the change project. Instead of a paper form, feedback can be obtained through online surveys (Zoomerang.com or Survey Monkey.com), an in-house questionnaire on the intranet, a few questions sent by email, or a focus group. The questions will vary depending upon the subject being queried.

Open Feedback include asking participants for suggestions and comments. The compiled results of the feedback forms can be used by the change management team members to modify the project plan and/or the communication plan or to work with specific individuals or groups that may be providing roadblocks to success.

Once a change initiative is underway, it is critical to sustain the change with reinforcement. The leader must make sure that the project and communication plan remain on track. They need to identify, and explore any issues from employees or stakeholders that have emerged, and review and consider any feedback gathered to date.

Acting as a facilitator, the leader helps to bring about learning and productivity. Communication will be a byproduct of this by providing indirect or unobtrusive assistance, guidance, and supervision.He or she listens actively, asks questions, encourages diverse viewpoints, organizes information, helps the group reach consensus, and understands that the individual needs of team members will affect teamwork.

The LEAD model provides a simple methodology for facilitating a participative meeting:

• Lead with objectives: When clear objectives are stated up front, group energy is channeled toward achieving an outcome. The objectives shape the content of the meeting.

• Empower to participate: In the Lead model, the facilitator is empowered to encourage active participation.

• Aim for consensus: Getting the team to consensus will have members more likely to support and carry out the decisions of the team.

• Direct the process: How the meeting progresses will influence the quality of the decisions of the team, and influences the commitment of team members.

Leaders must differentiate between process and content. Content includes the topics, subjects, or issues; process is about how the topics, subjects, or issues are addressed.

Because communications from managers and supervisors have been shown to have a significant impact on employees during a change initiative, it is appropriate that they be actively involved in celebrating success with employees as a result of positive performance. Celebrations can occur on three levels:

1. One on one conversation: In a private meeting, a supervisor should attest to the fact that due to the employee’s effort, a change was made, and how it is succeeding. He or she should extend verbal thanks to the employee.

2. Public recognition: Public recognition officially acknowledges outstanding performance and points out a role model that helped make a successful change happen. Supervisors should carefully consider who receives recognition, and not alienate group members who participated in the change but who many not have distinguished themselves as significantly.

3. Group celebrations: Fun or engaging activities are used to celebrate key milestones by a group. They include buffet or restaurant lunches, dinner events, or can include group outings to sports, amusement, or cultural events. It is important that these types of celebrations try to include the involvement of the primary change sponsor in some way.

Professor Akindotun Merino

Email: Info@africamentalhealth.net

Twitter: @drakinmerino

Fb: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Africamentalhealth/

Phone: 08118048229

The Witcher season 1 episode 7 recap

With Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) now without love from Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalorta), the seventh episode of Netflix’s The Witcher sees him return to Cintra to check in on his child of surprise Princess Cirilla (Freya Allan), who is now on her way to Skellige.

RELATED: The Witcher Season 1 Episode 6 Recap

Heading in Opposite Directions

Losing the companionship of Dara, Ciri is now by herself, found committing petty thievery from a marketplace on her way to the kingdom of Skellige. After meeting a woman, who offers to take her in for shelter with her family, she steals a horse and sets off. Meanwhile, Geralt returns to Cintra, despite Calanthe’s threats of death should he do so, and meets in secret with Mousesack to check in on Ciri and warn of the Nilfgaard army forming at the nearby Amell Pass. They are interrupted, however, by assassins, and realizing there’s too many Geralt forces Mousesack to portal the two out of there, arriving in Cintra. The queen initially wants to see Geralt dead and questions why he has returned, to which he says he never would have intended on it had she not sent eight men after him to kill him. She offers to pay him off to break the debt, but he refuses and believes her life to be in danger and offers to take her and protect her from Nilfgaard.

That’s Not the Princess

After initially meeting who he believes to be the princess, Calanthe asks he wait to be summoned while she says goodbye to her peasant friends, however Mousesack secretly opens a door for him and he follows the path to find her saying goodbye to her friends, except that it’s not the princess and that she is actually in plain clothes playing knucklebones with the other kids. Geralt returns and scolds the queen for lying to his face, to which she asks Eist to escort him out and he implores the witcher see that she can protect Cirilla, to which Geralt declines and says he will be back, causing Eist to lock him up to prevent such an event.

Disheartening Reunions

After venturing away from Geralt following their heartbreak, Yennefer has arrived in Nazair to meet with Istredd, who is currently looking for a hidden rune, in hopes of rekindling their romance and joining him on his expeditions. While they do initially kiss and he shares his feelings for her, he laments her for the fact she chose to be powerful over love and leaves her behind, after which she is met by Vilgefortz of Roggeveen. He says he is a mage from Aretuza and implores her to come back, as Tissaia has requested her presence with the looming war. Upon arrival, she learns he lied to her to get her to come back to help, with which she storms out and encounters a group of girls currently studying the mystical arts she did. However, she also learns that the rules are starting to loosen up in the time since she was a student, as most of the girls’ families practically bought their way in versus being discovered from a conduit moment. She mixes a special batch of herbs that gets all the young girls high, save for one who believes they will all suffer disciplinary actions. Yennefer takes the girls to the windmill where her former sisters were turned into eels and reveals this is the fate of those who don’t ascend and that should the girls ascend they will lose their fertility.

The Time for War is Now

With Nilfgaard continuing its conquering over the lands and Fringilla assisting with her magic, the Brotherhood of Sorcerers are divided on what their actions should be, some believing the kingdom’s statements that they only wish to conquer Cintra and should abstain while others believe Nilfgaard won’t stop there. After taking a vote on which path to choose, the Chapter decides to abstain from the war and let Cintra fall, save from a handful of mages who believe Nilfgaard must be stopped, Yennefer, Vilgefortz and Tissaia included. While still choosing to remain out of the battle, Tissaia pleads with Yennefer to join the fight to protect Aretuza not for its sake, but for the rectoress’, to which she agrees.

Destiny is Underway

As Cintra begins to fall at the hands of Nilfgaard (see Episode 1), Geralt escapes from his prison cell and makes his way out of the castle while Calanthe orders Mousesack to bring him to protect Ciri, only to find him gone. As Ciri is guided out of the castle to escape and Calanthe leaps from the window to her death, Geralt watches the queen fall after battling a few guards and heads back into the castle to look for the princess.

A Dark Power Emerges

As Ciri camps out in the middle of a field with her newly acquired horse, she is found by a group of men who happen to be Cintrans, one of whom was a peasant friend of hers, but rather than gather in happiness they proceed to steal her stuff and threaten to turn her into Nilfgaard. While being held, she finds a dark new power in which she begins chanting in a demonic voice that the time of “sword and axe” are nigh, echoing a statement made by Cahir in a previous episode and is seemingly possessed by a dark spirit before it cuts to credits.

Instruction: Retrieve semantically similar text.


Question:
Bernie Sanders lost all three of the primary contests on Tuesday to former Vice President Joe Biden, leading some people to believe he would be hanging up his bid.

He’s not… at least yet.

CNN’s Manu Raju reports Sanders responded angrily when asked at the Capitol whether or not he would be ending his campaign.

“Sen. Bernie Sanders grew angry when asked about his campaign plans. During a gaggle with reporters in the Capitol, I asked Sanders about his timeframe for making a decision, and he lashed out: ‘I’m dealing with a f*****g global crisis. You know, we’re dealing with,'” the CNN congressional correspondent said in a tweet.

Raju pressed further but Sanders said he was more focused on the coronavirus and its impact on the country than campaigning.

“I noted he’s running for president, and he said: ‘Well right now, right now I’m trying to do my best to make sure that we don’t have an economic meltdown and that people don’t die. Is that enough for you to keep me busy for today?'”

As BizPac Review reports, Axios initially reported that Sanders was dropping out of the presidential primary before correcting their report to say he was reassessing his approach. the publication subsequently released an apology.

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From BizPac Review:

CNN’s Manu Raju said when another reporter asked Sanders what he’s saying to his supporters, “he sidestepped the question, noting he sent out a statement. Then, I asked about his time frame [for suspending his campaign] — and he was furious.” — Advertisement —

And:

As Bernie Sanders continues to hear the cat calls from liberal media hacks like CNN Manu Raju, Sanders finally lost it and had a meltdown when asked about his campaign today on the hill. CNN and Manu Raju are basically cheerleading for pedophile Joe Biden at this point and Raju asked Comrade Bernie was asked about how campaign plans. Sanders cussed out Raju and replied:

Meltdown! Bernie Sanders cusses out CNN hack Manu Raju

“I’m dealing with a fucking global crisis. You know, we’re dealing with.”

Again, it’s hard to take sides here. CNN is the fake news kings and Bernie Sanders is a Democrat communist, but isn’t in the closet like the rest of the party. CNN getting owned though is awesome.

Sen. Bernie Sanders grew angry when asked about his campaign plans. During a gaggle with reporters in the Capitol, I asked Sanders about his timeframe for making a decision, and he lashed out: "I'm dealing with a fucking global crisis. You know, we're dealing with." — Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 18, 2020

that’s not all:

I noted he's running for president, and he said: “Well right now, right now I'm trying to do my best to make sure that we don't have an economic meltdown and that people don't die. Is that enough for you to keep me busy for today?" — Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 18, 2020

Ayodeji Ake, Sunday Ehigiator and Chiamaka Ozulumba, who sampled the opinion of some Nigerians, write that aside their personal goals, their expectations and aspirations for 2020 are for government to provide infrastructural development, basic amenities, as well as create better business environment for all to thrive in Year in, year out, the needs of Nigerians practically remain the same; provision of basic amenities by their elected officials, infrastructural development across board, favourable business environment and adequate security, amongst others. The incoming year is no different. As the curtain dropped on 2019 last Tuesday, to open up to 2020, the clamour across board is for security of people and properties, good governance, stable economy, vibrant health sector, viable education sector without incessant strike actions and basic amenities- good roads, stable power, adequate housing and potable water. THISDAY sampled the opinion of Nigerians across board and here are the excerpts:

Ezegbogu Malachi, Medical Doctor My expectations for Nigeria this 2020 are for a stronger and a more united country, actualisation of the dreams of our founding fathers, strong and functional government institutions, better implementation of our annual budget and a better economy. Also, I expect a stronger respect for human rights and freedom of the press. More opportunities for our teeming youth and development of indigenous talents. Mr Osanyintola Oladayo, Oil Contractor My expectations in 2020 are really high but I want to believe it’s impossible. Firstly, I will say the government must be able to provide some basic social amenities that can help improve the livelihood of all inhabitants of this country. Secondly, they must improve on job creation in various sectors of the economy. This has a long way to go in improving the economy and this would also encourage Nigerians to study because they know there is a reward for hard work. In addition, refining our crude oil here in our country will be of a better advantage and would boost the economy better, especially when the refineries function well and are properly managed. In conclusion, my expectations for Nigeria are beyond those mentioned and I know with God and good leadership, we should get positive results in no time. Mr. Adetola Adeleke; CEO Azacom Global My expectations for the year 2020 are a remarkable improvement in infrastructure, projects across the country to enhance true dividends of democracy. This is not limited to power, agriculture, education, rural development, urban renewal, power generation and transmission, prompt payment of workers salaries and allowances etcetera. Engr. Jim Oriahi, MNSE Nigeria is a great country and my expectations for 2020 are as follows: I want a Nigeria that is more focused on human development because the higher the Human Development Index (HDI), the more prosperous the country becomes. Unlike the GDP or GNP, which give income and productivity only, HDI is a vehicle for which income is turned into development; in the education or health sectors for instance. For a country to develop, the literacy level, education, and health sectors should be a priority to the government. Government must ensure that citizens have access to good health care, child mortality/mobidity rates at birth are of concerns, with access to quality education and a platform to incorporate learned knowledge to real-life situations. I look forward to a Nigeria where Income Per Capita is put in check to ensure there is a balance in labour/payments received per annum. High per capita income signifies high economic and financial security for the Nigerian populace. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is also used to determine the per capita value. Industrialisation plays a major part in a country’s development. For a country to grow, the rate of industrialisation and employment must be high, thus creating some level of job security for her citizens is very important. I want Nigeria to be such a nation with higher export than imports leading to more profits from the international trade which will ensure that there is economic growth. A Nigeria with political stability. Having stable political environment, low or no corruption, and high level of respect to the country’s laws. Good governance ensures that the level of corruption is low, transparency in the various activities of the government, and employment is based on merit. A Nigeria with good standard of living and with respect for all classes of her citizens. A Nigeria where the government and the masses uphold her peace and unity, and a country with freedom for all. God bless Nigeria. Prince Ozioma Ohia, Real Estate Contractor According to the nobel laureate Professor Chinua Achebe, ‘Nigeria’s struggles as a nation has been of leadership problems and these are manifested in policy formulation and decision making and how these policies are implemented- most of which are not people friendly and proposed policies are anathema to the polity. Some are even enacted oblivious of the electorate and the citizens. The question remains; Cui Bono? The current administration should focus on what every Nigerian yearns for. The development of the human potential. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals of vision 2020, is centered on ‘Human Capital Development’. Great emphasis and energy should be directed towards this area. Thank God for the policy of the Central Bank towards farmers, a step in the right direction. It should not be a political goal scoring point. Professor Claudius Ake asserts that ‘Mans Basic need is Food, Clothing and Shelter’. We should see more partnership between the federal government and the higher institutes of learning especially in the agro sector. There is a positive expectation from the citizenry in the coming year concerning power. The challenges of power generation should be overcome.

Vivian Oyinatumba, Student

I pray 2020 graces me with better opportunities, growth and, I hope Nigeria becomes a more conducive environment. The year 2019 did not really favour me; the year was a rollercoaster of different events rocking the country. This is why I pray for a better 2020, and that the government at all levels will do more for the masses.

Endurance Evulukwu; CEO Endykollections

My hope and expectations for the new year is to make Endykollections a fashion household name in Nigeria, and for every Nigerian woman to be an endykollectionswoman. I want to expand my business, so as to create job opportunities for the Nigerian youth. Then I want Nigeria to get better, and for every Nigerian to be passionate about contributing to nation building. And most importantly, I want to move closer to God

Timi Timz, Radio Host, PR and Comms Consultant and Entrepreneur

I know 2020 is going to be an amazing year for myself and others. It will be full of success stories, love, laughter, travels, lovely experiences and beautiful memories. Life is to be lived!

Kemi Ogunleye, Events Planner

I pray 2020 would be an amazing year for me; I strongly believe it would be filled with success for me and my friends. I also pray for anyone confused about life and their career to receive clarity in Jesus name. Stay happy always!

Henrietta Okoye; Youth Corp Member

I hope and expect to have a good job come 2020, build up my own business, travel to more than 20 countries, have a family of my own, if God permits. I pray Nigeria becomes a better country devoid of the present economic issues we’re currently battling.

Isi Stella Aigbomian, Midwife My expectations for 2020 as touching healthcare is basically an improvement on the resources in the health sector, referring to both maternal and human. In terms of material resources, I am optimistic that attention of the government and all other health related policy makers will come to the conclusion of equipping our health facilities ranging from primary health care to tertiary health facilities with necessary and basic equipment which assure quality assurance of care, both for diagnostic and patient treatment. In addition, policies that strengthen environmental sanitation and pollution control be put in place for the benefit of all. I also urge the government to prioritise healthcare of the citizens of Nigerians knowing that health is wealth. Rimamskep Ifusumu, Medical Doctor I expect a robust health institution with cancer centres in the six geopolitical regions fully equipped with modern Radioactive machines, and trauma centres built in three geopolitical regions, more funds for residency training to meet up the teaming or curb population of young doctors traveling abroad and meet up with the country’s population demand. I urge the government to increase budgetary allocation to achieve the above. Alabi Tolulope, Fashion Designer To the best of my knowledge, I believe the government needs our taxes to construct better roads in our country, and better roads will reduce the time we spend in traffic daily hence leading to greater and higher productivity on each day’s job/activities. The efficiency from jobs well done will improve the economic system. It will also divert our focus to accomplishing higher goals or trying out new inventions. People and companies evading taxes are doing the masses more harm than good, citizens who don’t pay their taxes have no right to complain about bad roads and other social amenities. So in year 2020 I implore people to pay their taxes promptly and correctly. One of the major problems with the governance of Nigeria is that the government is far from the masses. People are hungry, homeless, jobless and depressed, but the people in power seem not to know the extent to which some of their policies are affecting the masses. They should organise town-hall meetings to know what the masses are going through, this will bring governance closer to the smallest groups. Hon. Ishola Ibrahim, Politician Last year was really a roller coaster journey. After a general assessment of activities and event in 2019, it gives me great joy and expectations to look forward to 2020 as it will consolidate on achievements of 2019. I look forward to a 2020 of perfection. A year of joy creation and youths empowerment using available resources at our disposal. Investing in capacity building to make our youths discover their potentials, so as to become entrepreneurs, and in turn reduce unemployment and Al’s positive increase the country’s Gross Domestic Product. Osayuwame Ebuehi, Physiotherapist We hope that 2020 will be a good year having signed the budget early for private sector to chip in more businesses to develop the economy. And as regards the roads and electricity, with the constant and consistent payment of income tax, PAYE and VAT, and Nigerian government investing on it, Nigeria will make a better place. As regards the health, I would implore the government to provide more beds for hospitals, adequate facilities and good working Individuals. On my field, I need machines to process herbal roots and leafs to make it edible and very much reliable for consumption. Olatunji Adeleke, Professional Photographer In 2020, I expect the government to focus on building a friendly economy that attracts investors and embark on growing SME businesses as it will be a good bedrock for nation building. I also urge for the government as we approach 2020, they should stop living a lie and embark on serious and constructive poverty alleviation programmes for over 90 per cent of poverty stricken. I urge the government to be prudent in their spending, to be more calculative and wise. Adeola Alabi, Accountant I wish a good economy that will give entrepreneurs a fastanstic platform to operate, good road networks and stable electricity, as well as plan towards improving the standard of living of Nigerians by creating job opportunities for the youths. Adelaja Osisowo, Administrator, Broadcast Media Of course I expect better reform in policy making that would improve the economy in 2020. And repairs of our major roads both at the federal and state level including local levels. The government should be more proactive rather than reactive to things in 2020. Joshua Marcus Usoro, Singer and Dancer I expect a better and more stable economy and more opportunities for youths to grow and for health, I believe the Nigerian government should enforce health insurance and better equipment in hospitals for all Nigerians, it will save a lot of lives.

CIUDAD HIDALGO, Mexico — Hundreds of Central American migrants crossed the Guatemala-Mexico border at dawn Thursday without resistance and began walking up a rural highway.

Some carried banners arguing that migrants were not the problem, but rather the result of poor governing.

It was a resurgence of a migrant caravan that had been diminishing since its last concerted attempt to cross the border Monday was turned back by Mexican National Guardsmen posted along Suchiate river, which forms the border here.

Mexico began flying and busing members of the caravan back to Honduras on Tuesday.

Seven more buses left Mexico for Honduras on Wednesday, carrying 240 migrants back home, and two flights left with an additional 220 Hondurans, Mexico’s National Immigration Institute said. By Wednesday, the number of people outside the Casa del Migrante in Tecun Uman was perhaps half of what it was at its peak Sunday night.

In previous caravans, Mexican authorities have allowed caravans to walk for awhile, seemingly to tire them out, and then closed their path.

The Associated Press

MONROE, Mich. (AP) — A southeastern Michigan police officer is credited with pushing two people out of the path of a suspected drunken motorist who nearly slammed into them and then fled the scene.

Monroe police said the officer had pulled over a vehicle early Sunday along the city’s Telegraph Road when an SUV came barreling toward the back of his police cruiser.

The officer quickly pushed two people over the roadway’s guardrail to prevent them from being hit, Monroe Police Capt. Jon Wall told WDIV-TV.

“He heard what sounded like a car slamming on its brakes, which was squealing the tires, which alerted him to look into that particular direction,” Wall said.

The SUV went up on a sidewalk before its driver put it in reverse and fled the scene. Police pursued the SUV and soon arrested the motorist.

Walls said the suspect is facing several charges, including fleeing, resisting and obstructing.

Take a behind-the-scenes look at Liverpool's victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers with the latest edition of Inside Anfield.

Sadio Mane's first-half goal on Sunday was enough to see the Reds go the entireity of 2019 unbeaten at home, while restoring their 13-point lead at the top of the Premier League.

Our cameras were granted exclusive access inside the ground before, during and after the match - and you can watch the footage they captured in the video below.

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Question:
The Oyo State police command has opined that Alhaji Fatai Yusuf popularly known as Oko Oloyun was possibly killed because of a fraud he detected in his Lagos office.

This was made known to newsmen on Friday by the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, SP Olugbenga Fadeyi.

Also Read: Oko Oloyun, Popular Trado-Medical Expert, Shot Dead

The police spokesman stated that the detection of fraud by the trado-medical expert was possibly responsible for the fire incident in the office during which some account records were destroyed.

Going further, the police spokesman revealed that some of his staff and two police escorts are being questioned by a team of detectives from the homicide section of State Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku, Ibadan, with a view of finding and apprehending the fleeing suspects, who committed the heinous act.

The Oyo State Police Command on Friday vowed to fish out the killers of a trado-medical practitioner, Alhaji Fatai Yusuf, popularly known as Oko Oloyun.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the convoy of the deceased was attacked on Thursday on the Igbo-Ora-Eruwa Road by gunmen who shot at them from a thick forest, with a bullet fatally injuring him.

He was said to have later died from the injuries caused by the bullet.

A statement by the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, SP Olugbenga Fadeyi, hinted at a nexus between a fire incident in his Lagos office, ostensibly to cover up suspected fraud, and the attack.

Fadeyi said: “The report of Yusuf’s death was received by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Igbo-ora that the two-car convoy of the deceased was allegedly ambushed shortly after passing through five different police stop and search teams along Igbo-Ora road by yet to be identified assailants who fired at the moving vehicles on the road from the thick forest.

“The two-man armed escorts of policemen protecting the deceased engaged the assailants, but they managed to escape back into the forest after a single shot had hit the deceased who died later of his bullet injuries.

“An interesting twist to the story was that the deceased had earlier detected an alleged book keeping records fraud in his Lagos office which subsequently allegedly led to the burning of some financial/book keeping records.

“Some of his staff and two police escorts are being questioned by a team of crack detectives from the homicide section of State Criminal Investigation Department( SCID), Iyaganku, Ibadan, with a view of finding and apprehending the fleeing suspects who committed the heinous act.”

Fadeyi said the police in the state were working with other police formations and units to ensure that the directive of the Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, to unravel the killers was complied with.

The spokesman also said the Commissioner of Police in the state, Shina Olukolu, had promised to bring the culprits to justice within the shortest possible time.

Fadeyi said Olukolu, however, appealed to members of the public with credible information not to hesitate in passing it to the police to assist it in the apprehension of the assailants.

Bill Fugate, director of the Shalom shelter in Middletown, Ohio, talks with a homeless woman who sought help in December. (Amy Powell/For The Washington Post)

This small city, situated almost halfway between Dayton and Cincinnati, has long had a heart. In good times and bad, it has offered a generous network of privately funded homeless shelters, drug rehabilitation facilities and soup kitchens, plus a library that promotes access for all.

Yet in recent months, officials and residents have begun to question whom those services are benefiting and how to shoulder the cost. The police chief was the most prominent voice, accusing other communities of increasingly using Middletown as a dumping ground for their own problems.

“It is inhumane and it is irresponsible,” Rodney Muterspaw wrote in a lengthy Facebook post just before ending a 30-year police career. He recounted the “many times” officers had responded “to a person wandering around downtown only to find they were given a voucher for a cab from another city and sent here.”

The issues raised by Muterspaw’s self-described “rant” — which went viral, locally speaking — have only become more pressing with the arrival of winter. The homeless here, whether homegrown or from somewhere else, are estimated to number in the low hundreds. They may not attract White House attention, as homeless populations in Los Angeles and San Francisco have, but providing for them is as significant a challenge for Middletown, population 48,861, as for any major metropolitan area.

Steve Berg, vice president for programs and policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, says the problem has the same root causes regardless of location: “There is a disconnect between the incomes of people with the lowest incomes and rents for the most modest houses or apartments.”

Middletown’s gritty self-reliance and economic vulnerabilities have drawn attention before, chronicled in local author J.D. Vance’s best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” And just five years ago, its Rust Belt downtown was still marked by shuttered storefronts and cash-for-gold outlets.

While there has since been a rebound, with an arts center, wine bar, yoga studio and even a boutique hotel now open along Central Avenue, the renewed sense of hope seems tenuous and the emergence of homeless people wandering around downtown has unnerved some businesses.

The local government has already begun making tough financial decisions, raiding the 2020 street paving budget to put additional police on the beat to engage with homeless individuals who need help. And the continuing fallout from Muterspaw’s social media post claimed the city manager, who the City Council felt hadn’t handled the situation effectively.

Middletown’s First United Methodist Church houses the Shalom Shelter in its basement. (Amy Powell/For The Washington Post)

The men and women at the center of the discussion cobble together a fragile existence. Their stories are as varied as those who tell them: addiction, failed marriages, prison, disability. One man lives in a donated car and eats at local charity kitchens, scrounging enough money to pay $10 a month for a Planet Fitness membership that gives him access to a hot shower. Another leaves a homeless encampment along the banks of the Great Miami River for hot meals at a day program called the Mission on Main.

Sterling Seiler found himself on Middletown’s streets in early December. The 26-year-old is candid about his past, most of which was spent in Greenville, Ohio, about 40 miles away. His unsavory years gradually escalated to breaking and entering and finally dealing meth; since 2014, he has often been behind bars. But after an adverse reaction to meth in November, he was transported from jail to a hospital in Troy, Ohio.

“The jails want to send you to the hospital to get rid of you,” Seiler said, adding that hospitals are eager to do the same. A few days later, he was taken to a shelter in Dayton; a second drug episode got him transferred farther south to Middletown’s Atrium Medical Center. The cycle repeated itself when he was again released: He was put in a cab that left him at a downtown shelter run by Shalom, a church-led network that provides homeless people with home-cooked suppers and overnight beds from December through April.

“I was dumped twice in 10 days,” said Seiler, who’d never before been to Middletown. “I didn’t know anything about [its] shelter. I didn’t even know where the door was.”

Shortly after Seiler showed up, a cab dropped off a man who said he was from Cleveland — four hours away. He started going through Shalom’s intake process but then changed his mind and went across the street to the library.

“That happens quite often,” said Bill Fugate, who directs the 30-bed program with a generous but firm hand. He followed the new arrival to the library and pleaded unsuccessfully for the man to come back for a hot meal, bed and help.

“Where he went after that, I don’t know,” Fugate said, adding that for many homeless in southwest Ohio, Shalom is their last best hope. It’s the only overnight program in the region that doesn’t test for drugs, a significant draw in a part of the country ravaged by the opioid epidemic.

Shalom cared for 129 individuals last winter and has already served 59 people since reopening its doors in December. Hope House, the city’s main shelter, will soon complete an $11.5 million, 41,000-square-foot location with 50 beds for men’s temporary housing and a collection of apartments. (A separate shelter welcomes women.)

Sterling Seiler, 26, isn’t from Middletown, but he wound up homeless there after being discharged from the hospital and put in a cab that drove him to a shelter. (Amy Powell/For The Washington Post)

According to Fugate, Seiler is hardly the only out-of-towner dropped off by the city’s own hospital, which sits five miles from town along Interstate 75. But hospitals throughout the region are also discharging patients to Shalom with no advance warning, he contended, as are other jurisdictions’ police departments and social service agencies.

Neighboring police officials deny that. “We try to help them. We don’t take them to Middletown and leave them,” said Franklin Chief Russ Whitman, whose city is six miles up the highway.

In a statement, Atrium’s parent company, Premier Health, said the medical center “takes very seriously its responsibility to discharge these patients safely.” It pointed out that “although patients might have accepted the discharge plan at the time of discharge, they have the right to change their minds and/or make their own decisions once they leave the hospital.”

Middletown Council member Ami Vitori has been among the most outspoken about the “homeless dumping” issue. She would like to see a coordinated regional response that tackles the root causes of homelessness: lack of housing, jobs and mental health care. She’d also like a more vigorous police presence augmented by a network of cameras to catch dumpers, with penalties for the ones doing it.

“People come here because we are doing a good job of taking care of them, and the word spreads on the street, but at the same time there isn’t enough funding to help people from outside of our community,” said Vitori, a downtown business owner who described several bizarre encounters she’s had with homeless people since moving back from Washington in 2015.

Muterspaw estimated in his Facebook post from October that 75 percent of Middletown’s homeless are from somewhere else, though confirming that is difficult.

“Many of them feel a sense of shame that no one in their home community wants them, and they find acceptance here, so they quickly identify as being from Middletown,” explained Kathy Becker, an area homeless advocate and caseworker for Access Counseling, a local agency that helps homeless individuals find shelter and work.

Shalom Shelter cared for 129 individuals last winter and has already served 59 people since reopening its doors in December. (Amy Powell/For The Washington Post)

After only a week here — much of it spent by day at the public library — Seiler had enough of a foothold in the city’s social services system that he didn’t plan to leave.

He’d scored a job interview for maintenance work at a factory and said he was staying clean and trying to fend off his legal troubles back in Greenville.

“I know this is my last chance. I need to document everything I am doing and show the judge that I’m trying to get on the right track,” Seiler said.

Once again, that track runs right through Middletown.

Homelessness in the U.S. rose for a third year, driven by surge in California, HUD says

Supreme Court won’t review decision that protects homeless from tickets

New York is shipping its homeless to squalid housing out of state, Newark lawsuit claims

Abandoned malls are sputtering back to life with megachurches, rooftop pools and homeless shelters

Guwahati: The Assam government has banned strikes by employees of oil and gas sector in the state for six months from December 31, 2019 under the ESMA, an official release said on Thursday.

Strikes by the officers, workmen, contract labourers, drivers and their helpers of tankers in the sector have been prohibited under the Essential Services Maintenance (Assam) Act, 1980, the release said.

This has been done in public interest and any service in any oil field or refinery of any establishment or undertaking dealing with the production, supply of petroleum products including natural gas will fall under the purview of this order, it added.

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Opinion| Lawrence David| A ‘defrauded’ investor named Joel Caplan claims to have been defrauded out of his life’s savings by Chinese companies and that former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s bank records can unlock the mystery surrounding billions of dollars that have gone missing in the communist country.

According to the DailyMail.com court papers show that Caplan requested Judge Don McSpadden make him a third party in Lunden Roberts’ suit against Biden. Lunden Roberts, a professional stripper, is Hunter’s baby mama.

(DailyMail.com) …in a 30-page filing, Caplan lays out how he was allegedly swindled out of 10 years of his life savings in a ‘multi-billion dollar stock scheme known as the China Hustle.

Caplan, who filed papers from Jerusalem, Israel, claims many Chinese nationals made fortunes from the ploy, which involved presenting fake company documents and claiming they were genuine investments when they were actual frauds.

Then they went on to use the ill-gotten gains to influence politics and even ‘bribe’ individuals, such as Biden, Caplan claims.

Biden: China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man… I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what, they’re not competition for us.”

Another exclusive look at @SteveHiltonx’s interview with @realDonaldTrump where Steve asks the president about @JoeBiden’s ties to China – be sure to catch the full interview this Sunday at 9PM ET on @FoxNews! #NextRevFNC pic.twitter.com/66exg8bkUk — The Next Revolution (@NextRevFNC) May 17, 2019

Caplan is asking Judge McSpadden to all investigators to ‘follow the money’ and present what they find as part of the evidence in the case.

If the judge grants Caplan’s request, we can speculate where this eventually leads.

(Capital Research) As president, Bill Clinton essentially wiped out any strategic advantage the U.S. had by selling advanced U.S. missile technology to our enemy, the People’s Republic of China.

That “administration’s voluntary release of all the secrets of America’s nuclear tests, combined with the systematic theft of the secrets that were left as a result of its lax security controls, effectively wiped out America’s technological edge,” David Horowitz writes in the recently published, The Black Book of the American Left Volume 7: The Left in Power: Clinton to Obama.

Unlike the administrations that preceded it, the Clinton administration accepted millions of dollars from the military and intelligence services of at least one hostile foreign power. All of this was done in exchange for illegal campaign contributions from a massive totalitarian country determined to eclipse the U.S. as a world superpower.

President Clinton also lifted security controls, allowing thieves to access other vital military technologies, while disarming his own side and opposing needed defenses.

“One of the key technological breaks China received, without having to spy to get it, was the deliverance of supercomputers once banned from export for security reasons,” writes Horowitz.

This article originally appeared at and was republished with permission.

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A man has died, another is fighting for life and four more have been seriously injured in a horror smash as the first few hours of the New Year are met with tragedy.

A 59-year-old man died in hospital a short time after a black Mercedes C43 AMG smashed into his Skoda Octavia around 3.30am today "on what should have been a night of celebration".

Inspector Danny Byrne of Greater Manchester Police said five other men suffered serious injuries and one is fighting for life in a critical condition after the two cars came together on Yew Tree Road in Fallowfield, three miles south of Manchester city centre.

The dead man's family have been told the terrible news today and police are supporting them as their 2020 begins with heartbreak.

Inspector Byrne said: “This is a tragic incident in which one man died and five others were injured on what should have been a night of celebration – our thoughts are with them and their loved ones as our investigation continues."

(Image: MEN Media)

The M.E.N reports that the Skoda Octavia was believed to be a white taxi. The crash was said to have taken place to the junction with Platt Lane.

Multiple fire and rescue crews arrived at the scene four minutes later and found several people trapped inside the mangled wreckage of the cars.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service said crews used cutting equipment to release them.

(Image: MEN Media)

Police officers found the Mercedes had collided with the oncoming Skoda Octavia and urged anyone who may have spotted it or filmed it on their dashcam to come forward.

“I would like to use this opportunity to ask anyone with information or dash cam footage to contact us as soon as possible", added Inspector Byrne.

“We are particularly interested in hearing from anyone who saw the black Mercedes in the area prior to this collision.”

(Image: ASP WS)

Fire engines, police vehicles and the ambulance service were parked on the road from the early hours of this morning.

Images taken from the scene show both vehicles badly damaged.

The road was closed while the scene was examined but is now open.

You can call police on 0161 856 4741 quoting 1137 1/1/20.

Or you can give information anonymously via the independent charity – Crimestoppers, on 0800 555 111.

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Question:
Success Nwogu, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party on Wednesday urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct fresh elections in those constituencies in Imo State where PDP state lawmakers defected to the All Possible Congress.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, during a media briefing in Abuja, also said the defected lawmakers had lost their seats according to Nigeria's constitution.

He said, "It is settled under the 1999 Constitution (as amended), that a legislator who decamps from a party upon which he was elected a member of a legislative house automatically loses his or her membership of that house as the seat belongs to the political party upon which platform the election was won and not the individual.

"The vacation of the seat, as a direct consequence of decamping to another political party other than the party upon which one was elected to occupy a seat in the legislature, is clear and unambiguous under section 109 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

READ ALSO: Coronavirus: FG shuts down Chinese supermarket in Abuja

"For the avoidance of doubt, section 109 (1)(g) provides that “a member of the House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if …(g) being a person whose election to the House of Assembly by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected:

"The Constitution went further to state “provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”

"Consequent upon the above constitutional provisions, these defectors have vacated their seats, they no longer have a place in the state assembly, as there is no division or merger of any kind in the PDP at any level whatsoever.

"The PDP is therefore left with no other option than to request the INEC to immediately commence the processes for the conduct of fresh elections into the respective state constituencies where the legislators have vacated their seats, in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution."

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday declared that its members in the Imo House of Assembly who recently announced their defection to the All Progressive Congress (APC) have lost their seats.

Addressing a press conference at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja, its national spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, said their defection to the ruling party does not satisfy the provisions of the constitution.

While noting that there was no division in the PDP or a merger with another political group, he said their exit from the party has created vacancies in their constituencies.

The main opposition party, therefore, called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to begin a process of conducting a fresh election to elect new representatives for the constituencies.

He said where the electoral body fails to do the needful, the party would challenge the action in court.

Details later.

Jan 01, 2020 , 4:59PM 4 IAF personnel selected for training in Russia for Gaganyaan Mission to be launched in 2022: ISRO Chief @DDNewsLive ISRO Chairman Dr. K Sivan has announced that four air men from Indian Air Force have been identified for India's first manned mission to space, Gaganyan.

Speaking to media persons in Bengaluru today he said the four chosen airmen will undergo astronauts' training in Russia from third week of January. Gaganyan is planned to be launched in 2022 as announced by the Prime Minister.

The ISRO Chairman said an unmanned mission will be launched this year to test human rating of propulsion model and microgravity simulations. Dr. Siven also informed Chandrayan-3 mission has been approved by the Government.

This will be launched without an orbiter. He said the lander and rover will be soft landing in the south pole of lunar surface. It will carry out experiments that were planned during Chandrayan-2.

Dr. Sivan also announced today that a second satellite launch station will come up in Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu for which 2300 acre land will be acquired. He said initially small satellites will be launched from here.

Montreal [Canada], Jan 1 (ANI): World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) on Monday released a list of substances and methods that are prohibited in 2020.

The list constitutes Anabolic agents like androgenic steroids, peptide hormones, growth factors, and mimetics like Erythropoietin (EPO), beta-2 agonists including all optical isomers like Fenoterol and Formoterol.

The presence in urine of salbutamol in excess of 1000 ng/mL or formoterol in excess of 40 ng/mL is not consistent with therapeutic use of the substance and will be considered as an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) unless the Athlete proves, through a controlled pharmacokinetic study, that the abnormal result was the consequence of a therapeutic dose (by inhalation) up to the maximum dose indicated above.

The list also barred hormone and metabolic modulators, diuretics and masking agents, as well as other substances with a similar chemical structure or similar biological effects.

All-natural and synthetic cannabinoids are prohibited, glucocorticoids are prohibited when administered by oral, intravenous, intramuscular or rectal routes.

WADA's compliance review committee (CRC) had suggested several sanctions because of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency's (RUSADA) failure to cooperate fully during probes into Russian sport, CNN had reported.

WADA's executive committee decided to uphold the recommendations at a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.

It is being alleged that Russia manipulated a database to delete some test results and fabricate other data.

Three years ago, Russia was caught in one of the most controversial doping programs in sports history.

In the program, Russian anti-doping experts and members of the country's intelligence service replaced urine samples tainted by performance-enhancing drugs with clean urine at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. (ANI)

Over the past 18 months, Donald Trump has picked a fight with Iran that he won’t end and can’t win. That fight has had horrifying consequences for the Iranian people, led Tehran to restart its nuclear program, and now left parts of the American embassy compound in Baghdad in flames. In the days and weeks to come, Trump’s policy will likely lead either to war or to additional American humiliation, or both.

The fight began in May 2018, when the Trump administration left the Iran nuclear deal, and intensified last spring, when the United States designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization and moved to shut off Iran’s ability to export oil. Numerous observers warned that Iran would meet America’s escalation with escalation of its own. The Revolutionary Guard Corps designation, The New York Times reported last April, “was opposed by some top Trump administration national security officials who said it could incite retaliation by Tehran against American troops and intelligence officers.” The following month, the Times added that “in private meetings, military officials have warned the White House that its maximum-pressure campaign against Iran is motivating … threats to United States troops and American interests in the Middle East.” In The Atlantic that same month, Mike Giglio noted, “The militia groups that act as Iranian proxies in Iraq … would be an effective tool for further [Iranian] escalation” against the U.S.

These predictions have proved correct. In May, the United States accused Iran of attacking oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. Then, in June, Iran shot down an American drone.

Iran’s escalation left the Trump administration in a quandary. The president likes grand diplomatic gestures. But his administration’s withdrawal from the Iran deal—combined with its absurdly maximalist demand that, as a condition for any future nuclear agreement, Iran entirely capitulate to Saudi Arabia in the two countries’ contest for regional influence—has made a diplomatic solution to the crisis virtually impossible. In June, Trump’s then–national security adviser, John Bolton, argued for meeting Iran’s provocations with force. But Trump, convinced that his supporters want no more Middle Eastern wars, called off an attack aimed at punishing Iran for the drone strike. The attack on the drone didn’t kill any Americans, Trump explained. If it had, that would have made “a big, big difference.”

In backing down, he thus established a red line. And last week, Iran’s proxies crossed it. An Iranian-backed Iraqi militia, Kataib Hezbollah, fired on an Iraqi military base, wounding four American servicemen and killing an American contractor. This time, the Trump administration did respond with force: On Sunday, it launched air strikes against the militia’s forces in Iraq and Syria, killing 24 people and wounding 50.

But if Trump’s nonresponse made America look weak in June, his military response on Sunday set off a chain of events that has made America look even weaker. On Tuesday, following funeral services for the dead militiamen, thousands of supporters of Kataib Hezbollah and other pro-Iranian militias stormed the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, shouting “Death to America.” Outraged by the U.S. attacks, many of Iraq’s top clerics and politicians are now demanding the withdrawal of all American troops. On Tuesday, Abbas Kadhim, the director of the Iraq initiative at the Atlantic Council, tweeted, “I expect the days of the large American diplomatic & business presence in Iraq to be numbered.” Liz Sly, The Washington Post’s bureau chief in Beirut, predicted an end game reminiscent of Saigon in 1975. “After today,” she tweeted, “how do the Americans trapped inside the embassy leave except by helicopter?”

Trump, as is his wont, has responded with bluster: “Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities,” he tweeted on Tuesday. “They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat.” The Pentagon announced plans to send in reinforcements. But with each escalation, Trump’s predicament worsens. His confidants insist that he can’t afford a war—which would likely boost oil prices and damage the economy—especially in an election year. Yet he also can’t pursue real diplomacy, at least not without provoking a confrontation with the GOP’s hawkish foreign-policy elite. He’s caught between his desire to avoid being like George W. Bush and his desire to avoid being like Barack Obama.

So, absent a revolution that replaces the Islamic Republic with a more pliant regime, he’s at Iran’s mercy. Given the crushing sanctions America continues to impose, Iran has every incentive to make America bleed. Its proxy armies offer it numerous opportunities to do so. And every time it does, it offers Trump the unenviable choice of launching a potentially catastrophic third Middle Eastern war or being exposed as a paper tiger.

When it comes to Iran, Trump has shifted Republican foreign policy away from war without shifting it toward diplomacy—the only stable alternative to war. So he’s caught in a kind of purgatory. The American embassy compound in Baghdad, now covered in pro-Iranian graffiti and strewn with broken glass, is the latest symbol of that purgatory. It probably won’t be the last.

Illinois license plate sticker will be among most expensive in the nation

Illinois license plate sticker will be among most expensive in the nation

Illinoisans will be paying among the nation’s highest vehicle registration fees as part of a $45 billion infrastructure proposal pushed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the General Assembly.

Illinois drivers will pay the nation’s highest base fee and fifth highest overall fee for vehicle registration to help fund Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s $45 billion infrastructure plan.

The General Assembly passed the infrastructure proposal June 2, and Pritzker is expected to sign it. The legislation also includes a doubled gas tax expected to cost a family with two cars $300 more a year.

Under the proposal, Illinois drivers of standard vehicles weighing 8,000 pounds or less will see registration fees jump from $98 to $148 in 2020.

All other large vehicles, including trailers and buses, will see registration fee increases of $100. The registration on electronic vehicles will increase from $35 every two years to $248 every year. Motorcycles will not see a change in the $38 registration cost.

Illinois’ registration fee will be substantially higher than other states’ fees. Among neighboring states, Illinois is the only one to charge a flat rate over $100 for registration.

Illinois Policy Institute research showed no other state charges residents a base fee as high as Illinois. However, some states use a formula based on factors such as age, weight, and value to determine renewal fees, meaning some of their residents may pay more than Illinois residents for the same vehicle. For example, Iowa charges drivers $0.40 for every 100 pounds a passenger vehicle weighs multiplied by a percentage of the list price of the vehicle, which depends on its age. Other states such as Florida charge their residents a large tax the first time they register a vehicle, and then impose small age-related fees in the following years.

The Institute based calculations on a standard sedan weighing about 2,500 pounds that was sold in 2018 at a value of about $20,000 to determine fees in states with variable rates. The calculations showed that Illinois still has the fifth-largest vehicle registration fee in the nation, even when comparing it to drivers in other states who are registering a newer, lighter car.

Illinois in 2019 was again ranked as having the nation’s highest overall tax burden, at just shy of 15% of median household income. Adding another superlative by having Illinois residents pay the nation’s highest base vehicle registration fees is another reason for drivers to head for the state line and keep on going, just like 313 people a day on average have chosen to do for the past five years.

New physician hired

Salud Medical Center's new health-care provider is tri-lingual -- English, Spanish and Russian

Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic announced that Mania Kupershtok has joined the health-care team at Salud Medical Center in Woodburn.

Kupershtok, who is trilingual in English, Spanish and Russian, earned her Doctor of Medicine degree from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. She completed her family medicine residency and maternal child health fellowship with surgical obstetrics training at John Peter Smith Family Medicine Residency, located in Fort Worth, Texas.

In her spare time Kupershtok enjoys yoga, meditation, cooking and binging TV shows.

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