Question:
Twenty years ago, President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO leader Yasser Arafat met at Camp David where Barak offered almost all of what Arafat asked for in exchange for making peace with the Jewish state. Arafat rejected the offer.

The reason was and remains that the Palestinian leadership doesn’t want to make peace with Israel. Their goal is to eliminate it.

Now comes President Trump with his own peace plan, offering statehood, prosperity and peace to the Palestinians. Has anything changed in the last 20 years, indeed, since 1948 when the Arabs rejected the idea of a Jewish state and launched the first of numerous wars, spawning terrorist attacks?

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas rejected the Trump plan before it was announced, calling the president a “dog” and another name not fit to print.

The flaw in the Trump plan is that it is designed, like all the others, by people whose thinking is radically different from Arab and Muslim leaders.

Let’s start with the Palestinian Charter, which says in Article Nine: “Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine and is therefore a strategy and not a tactic. The Palestinian Arab people affirms its absolute resolution and abiding determination to pursue the armed struggle and to march forward towards the armed popular revolution, to liberate its homeland and restore its right to a natural life, and to exercise its right of self-determination and national sovereignty.”

One of the requirements in the Trump peace proposal is for the Palestinians to reject violence, including violence by Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Neither terrorist organization has accepted Israel’s right to exist and is unlikely to do so now.

The president spoke of the importance of peace for the younger generation. But young people are being educated like those who have gone before. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based nonprofit think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs, a 2017 study by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (in Jerusalem) found that “Palestinian children are being taught to glorify and value terrorism and violence” and that “The new Palestinian curriculum, which includes new textbooks for grades 1-4, is significantly more radical than previous curricula. To an even greater extent than the 2014-15 textbooks, the curriculum teaches students to be martyrs, demonizes and denies the existence of Israel and focuses on a “return” to an exclusively Palestinian homeland.”

There are plenty of good intentions in the Trump proposal, including a promise of prosperity and jobs for the Palestinian people. They could have had both long ago. Jobs and prosperity, however, do not supersede what many of them believe to be orders from Allah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political rival, Benny Gantz, have signed off on the plan, probably for political reasons with another election coming soon. They can’t possibly believe the Palestinian leadership will agree to the proposal.

Peace is not, or should not be, a goal. Peace is a byproduct of victory in war, or a decision by one’s enemies to change the way they believe and act. That Palestinian leaders will change their beliefs and desire to eliminate Israel is as likely as Democrats changing their minds about Trump’s presidency.

One wishes it were not so, but history — even recent history — proves otherwise.

Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com.

Photo Credit: Flash90

{Originally posted to the JNS website}

As far as Americans who despise President Donald Trump go, as well as for many Jews and Israelis who feel the same way about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the ceremony unveiling a new U.S. peace plan for the Middle East was a sham.

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With the Palestinians refusing to even talk to the administration—let alone negotiate with Israel about implementing the plan’s terms—chances of the “deal of the century” solving the conflict remain exactly zero. Trump’s opponents see his determination to recognize Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, as well as the green light his plan gives to annexation of West Bank settlements, as an outrage. And they dismiss his offer of statehood to the Palestinians—provided that they recognize the legitimacy of the Jewish state and cease support for terrorism—as meaningless.

In essence, all those denouncing Trump’s terms are advising the Palestinians to stick to their refusal to talk until a new American president takes office.

Whatever you think about Trump, it is the worst possible advice anyone could give to the Palestinians.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what many Democrats are doing. The same is true of allegedly “pro-peace” Jewish groups like J Street. Rather than encouraging the Palestinians to start negotiating, the “experts” about the Mideast are applauding their decision to reject Trump’s proposal out of hand. Sadly, they are once again serving as enablers for a Palestinian Arab leadership that has, over the course of the last century, failed their people miserably as they pursued a futile war against Zionism.

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas stopped talking to the Americans after Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017 and then continued to ignore them as the peace plan was drafted. He refused an invitation to the White House and even a phone call from the president, whom he denounced as a “dog” and a “son of a dog.” But the key to understanding his stance was his statement that if he were to negotiate on these terms, he would be seen as “a traitor” to the Palestinian people.

The political culture that produced Abbas is one in which any recognition of Israel’s legitimacy is not merely a form of treason, but a complete betrayal of Palestinian identity. That’s why Abbas was meeting with representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, rather than with Trump and Netanyahu at the White House.

Abbas may think that it’s outrageous that he’s being asked to accept less than what George W. Bush and Ehud Olmert offered him in 2008, or what Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak offered his predecessor Yasser Arafat in 2000 and 2001. But what Trump’s critics forget is that both Abbas and Arafat rejected those offers of Palestinian statehood in almost all of the West Bank, Gaza and a share of Jerusalem. Independence wasn’t enough for the Palestinians then. And it’s not enough now—and not because the amount of territory they’re being offered is slightly less than what was on the table previously. Abbas is saying “no” to Trump for the same reason that the Palestinians have been saying “no” to every compromise that has been mooted to solve the conflict since the 1930s. No Palestinian leader has the courage to make peace with Israel, no matter where its borders are drawn, because they remain locked into a war that they have already lost.

Palestinians are right to say that Trump is asking them to surrender. But what they must surrender is their dreams of eliminating Israel. The problem with the plans put forward by Trump’s predecessors was not that they weren’t generous enough to the Palestinians, but that they refused, as Trump has done, to force them to realize that time wasn’t on their side.

Israel tried in the 1993 Oslo Accords to trade “land for peace,” but got terror instead. The same was true of Ariel Sharon’s withdrawal of every Israeli soldier, settler and settlement from Gaza in August of 2005. The overwhelming majority of Israelis have learned from these failures, and that is why even the Blue and White Party that leads the opposition to Netanyahu largely agrees with him about the need to hold onto security control of the West Bank and to annex portions of it since there is no Palestinian peace partner in sight.

Had the Palestinians accepted Clinton and Barak’s offer of peace in 2000, many of the settlements that Trump is allowing Israel to annex would no longer exist. But after two decades of violence and rejectionism, it isn’t reasonable to expect Israelis to risk their national security and defense in the same manner they might have done in the past. No American president can make Israel give the Palestinians what they want because their goal isn’t a demilitarized state that will live in peace alongside a Jewish state, coupled with the Gaza Strip no longer ruled by Hamas terrorists. The fact that Abbas even cited J Street as a group opposing Trump’s plan after he met with terrorists illustrates how utterly counterproductive that group’s efforts are to the cause of peace.

With much of the Arab world no longer interested in backing their endless war against Israel, the Palestinians need to understand that Trump’s team of former real estate executives turned diplomats is right to think of them as equivalent to a property that is rapidly depreciating in value.

What Trump is offering the Palestinians is the best chance they’re going to get to achieve a measure of independence, and eventually even prosperity. Anyone who advises them differently—whether out of disdain for Trump, or because they are fixated on forcing Israel to retreat to the 1967 lines and evicting hundreds of thousands of Israelis from their homes—is merely encouraging them to make the same mistake Palestinians have made every other time they had a chance to end the conflict and move on with their lives. All J Street and the Democrats are giving them is the permission to go on dooming their people to fight an endless war they’ve already lost.

Millions go on strike against Modi govt’s policies

NEW DELHI/KOLKATA/ MUMBAI: Millions went on strike throughout India on Wednesday, unions said, as workers angry at the government´s labour policies brought travel chaos across the country.

The widespread action was in opposition to what unions called the "anti-worker and anti-people policies" of right-wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

They highlighted the recent privatisation of public firms and natural resources and demanded a rise in the minimum wage and pensions.

Farmers and students joined some of the protests called by 10 trade unions who claim 250 million members between them. Bus and train services and state-owned banks bore the brunt of the national strike action that was staged in defiance of government warnings of "consequences" for anyone who took part. Protesters blocked roads and railway tracks, while those at rallies also chanted slogans against the government´s new nationality law that opponents say is anti-Muslim and has sparked widespread demonstrations.

In West Bengal state, strikers targeted railways and key highways and burned tyres on a main road in the state capital of Kolkata. Protesters carried red flags at rallies in the city.

Police said there had been some "clashes" in Kolkata and other districts between supporters and opponents of the strike.

The eastern states of Bihar and Odisha, Maharashtra in the west, Haryana in the north and Kerala and Karnataka in the south were also hit by the action. Some workers at state oil and coal firms joined the strike.

The government had warned strikers that they would face "consequences" including having wages deducted and other disciplinary action if they joined the protest. But the strike added to pressure on the Modi government already hit by widespread protests over the nationality law passed on December 11. More than 25 people have been killed in the protests. Growing unrest in universities has added to social tensions.

"The attitude of the government is that of contempt towards labour," said the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, one of the groups organising Wednesday´s 24-hour strike.

Opposition parties have backed the strikers. Rahul Gandhi, former leader of the main opposition Congress party, said the government had "created catastrophic unemployment" in a Twitter message praising the action. A government´s move to privatise big state-run firms as it struggles to get out of a severe economic slowdown has riled the opposition and unions.

The government statistics office forecast on Tuesday that annual growth would slow to 5.0 percent in 2020, the slowest pace in 11 years.

Last month the International Monetary Fund said the Indian government must take steps quickly to reverse the slowdown.

It said declining consumption and investment, coupled with falling tax revenue, had combined to put the brakes on what was once the fastest growing of the world´s major economies.

Meanwhile, Indian police fired live rounds Wednesday to break up a protest by strikers taking part in nationwide action against government economic policies, officials said.

West Bengal was the worst hit, with police firing live rounds in the air to break up protesters who set fire to police vehicles and threw rocks at security forces in Malda district, north of the capital Kolkata, a senior police officer said. They also fired tear gas and baton-charged other protests in the eastern state, where many roads and railway lines were blocked. Police said more than 150 arrests were made.

Meanwhile, a top Indian actress who joined students protesting against the government drew calls on social media on Wednesday for a boycott of her upcoming film, as well as praise for being a rare Bollywood A-lister to stand up against a crackdown on dissent.

Deepika Padukone stood silently behind students chanting anti-government slogans at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University on Tuesday evening, surprising many in a country where top film stars typically avoid politics. Her act of solidarity came after masked men wielding sticks and rods stormed the JNU campus on Sunday, injuring some 30 people.

Students at JNU, regarded as a left-wing bastion, have protested for months against an announced fee hike as well as a new citizenship law, which critics say discriminates against Muslims and erodes India’s secular constitution.

Pictures circulating online showing a solemn-faced Padukone standing behind an injured student leader, whose head was covered in a bandage, set off social media storm, raising calls for a boycott of her film “Chhapaak” (Splash), which is set to be released on Friday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has, on January 2nd, managed to take some time out of his busy party and backyard cricket schedule to front Australian media, where he has asserted that one of the real tragedies of the on-going, cataclysmic fire catastrophe is milk that’s had to be poured out.

Morrison and Minister for Water Resources David Littleproud fronted media a short time ago for a large and at-times rambling press conference in a bid to quell rising fury from the public in regards to the complete lack of visible action from the Morrison Federal Government as the fire issues have worsened and the associated death toll has risen.

Remarkably enough, the Prime Minister singled out the NSW town of Cobargo, which was virtually flattened as the fire front swept through the town just before New Year’s. Rather than suggest that people losing their homes, and even their lives, Morrison suggested that the biggest tragedy for Cobargo was dairy farmers having to pour milk down a hill due to blackouts shutting off refrigerated storage.

“In particular, down in Cobargo and places like that, where dairies have been milking and they simply have to pour the milk down the hill because of the lack of power to those areas at this time. That is the tragedy of what is occurring as a result of these disasters.”

READ MORE Scotty From Marketing Spent Yesterday Faffing About With Cricketers

In a remarkably defensive and at times visibly angry appearance, Morrison repeatedly passed the buck of immediate fire response onto the states – though he did assert Commonwealth assistance was being made available whenever it was needed.

The Prime Minister was repeatedly grilled on the links between climate change and the conditions that have severely exacerbated fire conditions, and it was on this issue that he became visibly annoyed.

Tersely, he snapped “What we will do is make sure our policies remain sensible, that they don’t move towards either extreme, and stay focused on what Australians need for a vibrant and viable economy, as well as a vibrant and sustainable environment. Getting the balance right is what Australia has always been able to achieve.”

Shortly after that, he closed his response off with a curt “thank you very much,” before storming off and ending the press conference.

The Prime Minister did not field any question, nor did he provide comment on, his extraordinarily ill-timed Hawaii holiday, nor his reported past 24 hours spent entertaining a variety of guests at Kirribilli House.

All in a day’s work for Scotty, folks.

DUMFRIES AREA

ROBBERY

Triangle Shopping Plz., 18000 block, 6:39 p.m. Dec. 17. A man entered a wireless electronics store with a firearm and demanded cash. An employee complied, and the man fled.

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THEFT/BREAK-IN

Jonathan Ct., 4300 block, 7 p.m. Dec. 7. Four people entered an unlocked residence, took several pairs of shoes, and fled. An 18-year-old Dumfries man was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit burglary, burglary and use of a firearm in commission of felony. A Dumfries male, 17, and two Woodbridge males, 16 and 17, were arrested and charged as juveniles with conspiracy to commit burglary, burglary and use of a firearm in commission of felony.

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GAINESVILLE AREA

THEFT/BREAK-IN

Cartagena Dr., 14800 block, Dec. 12. A homeowner received an alarm activation alert at his residence and found a rear sliding-glass door was opened by force. Entry was made but nothing was reported missing.

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HAYMARKET AREA

SEXUAL BATTERY OF A MINOR

Haymarket area, Dec. 14. An 11-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a male acquaintance. A 26-year-old Haymarket man was arrested and charged with aggravated sexual battery.

CHILD NEGLECT/DUI

James Madison Hwy. near Market Ridge Blvd., 2:25 a.m. Dec. 24. A female driver was observed speeding and unable to maintain her lane of travel. During the traffic stop, police determined the driver was under the influence of alcohol with a 10-month-old baby in the vehicle. The 26-year-old Linden woman was arrested and charged with felony child neglect, driving under the influence and reckless driving.

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ASSAULT ON LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER

Mountain View Dr., 4300 block, 1:17 a.m. Dec. 13. A woman was asked by a homeowner to leave the property. She refused, disregarded officers’ commands, bit an officer, and resisted arrest. The 35-year-old Manassas woman was arrested and charged with assault and battery on a law enforcement officer, trespassing, obstruction of justice, and destruction of property.

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MANASSAS AREA

HOMICIDE

Sudley Rd., 8200 block, 2:25 a.m. Dec. 26. Two men entered a restaurant brandishing a handgun and a baton. They ordered the patrons and employees to the ground and demanded cash and cellphones. They also demanded cash from the restaurant. They shot a man sitting on the floor who was cooperating, then assaulted and shot a delivery driver entering the restaurant who unwittingly held open the door for the men as they fled. The delivery driver, a 56-year-old Manassas man, died at the hospital from his injuries. The first victim was treated for serious injuries but is expected to survive.

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ROBBERY

Williamson Blvd., 7500 block, 1:13 a.m. Dec. 23. Two masked males entered a hotel lobby. One went to a back office and demanded cash from an employee at gunpoint, and the other walked behind the counter, opened the cash drawer, took money and fled.

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THEFT/BREAK-IN

Cobble Pond Way, 8100 block, 7 p.m. Dec. 5 to 4 p.m. Dec. 9. A gaming console was stolen from a residence entered through an unlocked door.

WOODBRIDGE AREA

MALICIOUS WOUNDINGS

Ferry Landing Lane, 13000 block, 4 p.m. Dec. 17. A woman got into an altercation at a residence with a male family member. During the incident, the woman grabbed a knife and swung it toward the man several times, striking him in the head and back. Minor injuries were reported. The 35-year-old Woodbridge woman was arrested and charged with malicious wounding.

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Darbydale Ave., 14700 block, 8:54 a.m. Dec. 22. A man got into a verbal altercation with a female acquaintance that escalated in a vehicle. During the incident, the man stabbed the woman in the lower back and grabbed her cellphone when she attempted to call police. The woman was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The 55-year-old Woodbridge man was arrested and charged with malicious wounding, preventing the summoning of law enforcement, and intoxicated in public.

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ASSAULTS

Beechtree Lane, 2800 block, 6:53 p.m. Dec. 22. A man entered the residence of a female family member without permission. When she attempted to call police the man took the woman’s phone and assaulted her, then fled. The woman sustained minor injuries. In addition, the man violated a current protective order.

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Potomac Mills Cir., 2700 block, Dec. 13. A man got into an argument with a female acquaintance in a parking lot at a shopping mall. The man grabbed the woman’s throat. He struck her in the face and head and caused her to fall to the ground and lose consciousness. The woman eventually drove herself to a hospital for treatment. The 30-year-old Stafford man was arrested Dec. 14 and charged with strangulation and assault and battery.

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ASSAULTS ON LAW ENFORCEMENT

Botts Ave., 13800 block, 10:20 p.m. Dec. 15. Responding to a call for a suspicious person, police located four occupants in a vehicle and detected the odor of marijuana. One of the male occupants was found to be in possession of a handgun and marijuana. He became disorderly, refused lawful commands, provided a false identity, and kicked an officer. The 16-year-old Woodbridge male was arrested and charged with assault and battery on law enforcement officer, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, destruction of property, possession of a firearm while in possession of schedule I or II drugs and presenting false identification to a law enforcement officer.

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Cloverdale Rd., 15100 block, 4:40 a.m. Dec. 12. A man refused to return a vehicle belonging to a female acquaintance after being allowed to use it briefly. The man drove up while officers were at the residence. He refused to comply with officers’ commands, a struggle ensued, and he was arrested. The 21-year-old Woodbridge man was charged with assault and battery on a law enforcement officer, unauthorized use of a vehicle, and obstruction of justice.

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Dining Way, 14800 block, 8:45 a.m. Dec. 20. A man was seen attempting to open car doors, then fled into a nearby business where he began acting disorderly. The man assaulted an officer who attempted to detain him and resisted arrest. The 47-year-old man of no fixed address was charged with assault and battery on a law enforcement officer, attempted grand larceny, obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct.

ABDUCTION

Gableridge Turn, 1800 block, 10:30-11:30 p.m. Dec. 20. A man and a woman got into an argument that escalated at an apartment. When she attempted to flee the apartment, the man pushed the door shut and locked it, preventing her from exiting. The 37-year-old Woodbridge man was arrested and charged with abduction.

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ROBBERIES

Jefferson Davis Hwy., 14000 block, 12:10 a.m. Dec. 24. Two masked men entered a pharmacy brandishing a firearm. One of the men escorted an employee to a back office and demanded cash while the other demanded cash from the registers. No injuries were reported.

Minniville Rd., 12700 block, 1:32 a.m. Dec. 19. Two females entered a service station, accosted an employee with a stun gun and demanded cash. The employee refused and threw merchandise at them. The females attempted to flee, but the employee detained one of them. A 15-year-old Manassas female was arrested and charged with attempted robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, and assault and battery.

Pearson Dr., 4700 block, 1:43 a.m. Dec. 19. Responding to shots fired, police located a man in the street with a gunshot wound and assault injuries to the upper body. The man pulled into a residential driveway and exited a vehicle after returning from a casino with an acquaintance. Multiple masked man assaulted the man, shot him in the upper body, took cash and a cellphone and fled in a dark-color SUV. The injured man was flown to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.

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SHOOTING INTO AN OCCUPIED DWELLING

Bentley Cir., 13500 block, 3:20 a.m. Dec. 22. A homeowner heard loud noises and discovered bullet holes in her front door. Police located shell casings in the street in front of the residence. No injuries or other damage were reported. A dark four-door sedan was seen fleeing the area.

Katie Pl., 3700 block, 1 a.m. Dec. 26. Responding to shots fired, police located a residence with damage consistent with being struck by projectiles. Shell casings were also located in front of the residence. No injuries or other damage were reported.

ARREST

Georgetown Rd., 16600 block, Dec. 5. Police arrested a 13-year-old Woodbridge male wanted in connection with an attempted armed robbery. He was charged with attempted robbery and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. A male accomplice has not been located.

Manassas

There were no incidents reported by Manassas police for this edition of Local Living. For information, call 703-257-8000.

Manassas Park

There were no incidents reported by Manassas Park police for this edition of Local Living. For information, call 703-361-1136.

A DRIVER on drugs was caught speeding at over 100mph on the motorway.

Police chased down a driver weaving in and out of traffic at speeds of more than 100mph on the M61.

The University has also begun registration for the PhD Common Entrance Test.

Periyar University is expected to announce undergraduate exam results today. While many reports claim that the Periyar University UG results will be coming today, the official website of the university,where the results are always hosted, has no update in this regard.

Periyar University Result Link

Last year for the November UG exam, Periyar University had announced the result on January 5.

After the results are announced today, candidates can access it online at periyaruniversity.ac.in using their roll number and/ or name. It has been seen earlier that immediately after the results are out, the website stops responding. In such cases, students are suggested to keep patience and wait for a while.

The University has also begun registration for the PhD Common Entrance Test.

It has also released the time table for PRIDE practical examination. The University established a directorate for distance education namely Periyar Institute of Distance Education (PRIDE). The PRIDE started functioning from the year 2001 - 2002. PRIDE is held annually for selecting candidates for admission to UG degree, UG certificate, PG degree, MBA, MCA, MSc (IT), PG Diploma Programme, BLIS, MLIS and UG Diploma courses through distance mode.

For the previous PRIDE, hall tickets were released on January 30.

Click here for more Education News

Instruction: Retrieve semantically similar text.


Question: Your digital subscription allows you to view any content, comment on any issue and submit your own news to our newsroom.

Two new cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in San Joaquin County, bringing the total to three cases in the county, public health officials said Thursday.In response, San Joaquin County Public Health Services declared a public health emergency “in order to assist in leveraging additional resources and funding to ensure an appropriate response to the COVID-19 outbreak.”“The proclamation should not be considered a reason for heightened concern; it is intended to help facilitate additional resources to address the increasing demands of containing the virus,” health officials said in a statement.County officials will now be shifting to community mitigation measures as a way to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This means officials will move away from “individually focused, labor-intensive ‘contact-tracing’ and quarantine, to minimizing the impact of COVID-19 in the greater community."“These actions are important steps to freeing up public health resources to protect the most vulnerable populations, and allow our health care system to prepare for taking care of severely ill patients,” health officials said.

Two new cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in San Joaquin County, bringing the total to three cases in the county, public health officials said Thursday.

In response, San Joaquin County Public Health Services declared a public health emergency “in order to assist in leveraging additional resources and funding to ensure an appropriate response to the COVID-19 outbreak.”

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“The proclamation should not be considered a reason for heightened concern; it is intended to help facilitate additional resources to address the increasing demands of containing the virus,” health officials said in a statement.

County officials will now be shifting to community mitigation measures as a way to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This means officials will move away from “individually focused, labor-intensive ‘contact-tracing’ and quarantine, to minimizing the impact of COVID-19 in the greater community."

“These actions are important steps to freeing up public health resources to protect the most vulnerable populations, and allow our health care system to prepare for taking care of severely ill patients,” health officials said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iran or its proxy forces may be planning further strikes on American interests in the Middle East, and the U.S. is prepared to take preemptive military action if it gets sufficient warning, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Thursday.

“The game has changed,” Esper said, citing a series of violent attacks on U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq in recent months by Iran-supported militia groups. “We’re prepared to do what is necessary to defend our personnel and our interests and our partners in the region.”

On Tuesday, after a crowd of Iran-backed militiamen and their supporters stormed the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad, the Pentagon sent a Marine quick-reaction force to the embassy, and later it dispatched hundreds of Army paratroopers from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The paratroopers are in Kuwait as what Esper called “defensive support.”

Esper announced on Tuesday evening that in addition to sending about 750 soldiers from the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, the U.S. would deploy more troops from the Fort Bragg unit “over the next several days.” On Thursday he gave no indication of additional imminent deployments.

“We’ll take it day by day,” Esper said when asked whether he had decided to send additional forces.

Without providing details, Esper told reporters at the Pentagon that the U.S. has “indications” that more Iranian provocations may be in the offing. If that happens, he said, the U.S. will take action — preemptively, if it has enough warning.

In a written statement Thursday, Esper said the U.S. is certain the attack on the embassy compound was carried out by Iran-supported Iraqi Shiite militias because key leaders of them were seen in the crowd. He specifically referred to Kataeb Hezbollah, or KH, a militia that is part of the Iraqi government-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces.

The U.S. also blames KH for a rocket attack on an Iraqi base near Kirkuk last week that killed one American contractor and wounded many American and Iraqi soldiers. In response, American airstrikes on Sunday struck what the Pentagon described as five KH-related targets in western Iraq and eastern Syria, killing at least 25 fighters.

Asked specifically about the likelihood of further KH provocations following the embassy attack, Esper said, “Do I think they may do something? Yes, and they will likely regret it.”

Speaking alongside Esper, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. has sufficient forces at the Baghdad Embassy to defend it.

“We are very confident that the integrity of that embassy is strong, and it is highly unlikely to be physically overrun by anyone,” Milley said. “There is sufficient combat power there, air and ground, that anyone who attempts to overrun that will run into a buzz saw.”

Trump administration officials have expressed disappointment in the Baghdad government’s failure to protect U.S. facilities and personnel in the face of numerous attacks by Iran-backed militiamen in recent months. Esper, however, took a more conciliatory tone Thursday when asked about repeated U.S. pleas for better Iraqi precautions.

Esper said the Iraqi government’s “performance has greatly improved in the last 24 hours,” with regard to security. On the other hand, he said, the Iraqi government in 2019 was urged “over and over” by senior American officials to do more to control the Iran-sponsored militia groups, such as KH, and to investigate those who instigate attacks on U.S. targets.

“We haven’t seen sufficient action on their part,” Esper said, adding that Iraqi leaders must “get the Iranian influence out of the country.”

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

This Dracula review contains spoilers. It originally appeared on Den of Geek UK.

Dracula Episode 1

With a personal brand that stretches across all of culture, the who, what, when and where of Count Dracula are well known. He’s a centuries-old nobleman in a Transylvanian castle who vants to suck your blooood. The novel question this adaptation of Bram Stoker’s story asks is: why? Why crucifixes, why the need for an invitation, why the brides, why everything. Why is Count Dracula the best, most successful vampire of all time?

It’s a good hook, and a much-needed one for this lengthy four and a half-hour adaptation (told in three 90-minute episodes, Dracula follows the same format as the creators’ previous show Sherlock). Asking "why" reinvigorates a story we already know, bringing the villain out of the shadows and refashioning him as the lead and not just the title character.

Fashioning him full stop, you might say. Making Dracula so present in his own story requires the almost complete invention of an actual character beyond the nightmare stuff. Until now, you may as well have asked what drives bacteria, or a school of piranhas, or a lashing rainstorm.

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Doing the asking here is queen of weird comedy Dolly Wells, playing Dutch atheist nun Sister Agatha, full name: Sister Agatha Van Helsing - a late reveal signalled early on by a glimpse of the wooden stakes in the bottom of her carpet bag.

read more: Dracula Series Score is Made From Real Blood and Screaming Babies

Interviewing solicitor Jonathan Harker about his time with Count Dracula in the first hour, Agatha is a jockey with a whip, urging the plot onwards. Once Dracula arrives at the convent, she’s a co-lead with her own emotional arc. Wells is the episode's funniest, oddest ingredient, gets all the best lines and doesn’t waste a single one.

Shouldering the Count’s new dramatic weight while making him funny, sexy, menacing and monstrously detached is Danish actor Claes Bang. From half an hour in, when Bang is unveiled without ageing prosthetics or Transylvanian accent, he’s a hit. His louche delivery and indifference to suffering (“John-ny, there’s no ba-by”) feel satisfyingly transgressive for a monster as classic as this one.

read more - Dracula Episode 2 Review: Blood Vessel

A monster who’ll be recognisably familiar to viewers of Sherlock, Doctor Who or Steven Moffat’s 2007 series Jekyll – commanding, super-intelligent and entirely without conscience. This is Dracula styled with Moffat and Gatiss’ tastes and tics: an open-door policy for famous name drops (the Count ate Mozart), in-jokes (“I have a detective acquaintance in London,” says Agatha. And could the barmaid at The Rose and Crown Mina lusts after in her letter to Jonathan be a nod to Jenna Coleman’s character in Doctor Who’s The Snowmen?) as well as a toweringly high tolerance for most badum-tish of puns. (“You do look rather… drained").

As Harker, John Heffernan has much less fun than Bang and Wells, but does even more impressive work. Even with his character’s oozing sores, fly-absorbing eyeball, missing fingernails and prosthetic rat teeth, he and Morfydd Clark (playing Mina – "hidden" in plain sight from the start as Sister Agatha’s silent colleague) somehow make a heartfelt love scene work. Heffernan is a fine comedy straight man and an even finer tragedian.

read more - Dracula Episode 3 Review: The Dark Compass

All that, and there’s some real horror. Vampire babies and gruesome living corpses and glitch-animated unfolding zombie bones and a glistening nude Count having just burst his way through a bloody wolf pelt, crouching on cobbles and licking blood from a knife blade. Episode one is full of weird imagery and unsettling detail from director Jonny Campbell, supported by an impressive Gothic setting and atmospheric score.

Weird is one word for it. Idiosyncratic is another. Unhinged might be a third. Scary, funny, unusual, simultaneously a tribute to classic movie horror and a pastiche of the same, it careens between broad laughs and disquieting images.

Like the recently aired A Christmas Carol, any new version of a much-adapted tale needs to justify its existence through the force of its personality. This Dracula could hardly be accused of shirking that job - on the basis of episode one, it has personalities to spare.

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The case against a Cornwall man who removed a provincially mandated sticker decrying the federal carbon tax from a gas pump has been dropped.

Jesse Seguin, 36, was charged with criminal mischief in October after police alleged he removed an Ontario government-mandated sticker from a gas pump at a Cornwall gas station.

The “federal carbon tax transparency sticker”, which must be displayed on an easily visible place on every gas pump in Ontario outside of a First Nation, was mandated by the Progressive Conservative government last August as a way to convince more Ontarians to oppose the federal carbon tax.

The federal tax was imposed on the province after the Ford government cancelled Ontario’s cap-and-trade program and refused to create a carbon tax of its own.

Seguin was arrested and released from custody with a court date in late November, but the charge was withdrawn by the Crown.

Don’t spread invasive freshwater pests this summer

Gisborne District Council and Biosecurity New Zealand are reminding everyone who visits rivers, lakes and streams this summer to check, clean and dry their gear when they move between waterways.

“Checking, cleaning and drying your gear between waterways stops the spread of invasive freshwater pests, such as didymo, hornwort, pest fish and oxygen weed,” says Gisborne’s Check Clean Dry advocate, Teegan Maxwell.

Ms Maxwell says freshwater pests pose a serious threat to all rivers, streams and lakes in the Gisborne Wairoa area.

“If pests get into our waterways they are just about impossible to get rid of, they cost a fortune to manage and can ruin beautiful water ways and habitat for native species.

Some freshwater pests, like didymo, are microscopic and can be spread in a single drop of water. Even if you can’t see the danger you could be spreading it,” she said.

Ms Maxwell recommends people follow the simple Check-Clean-Dry process before leaving any waterway:

• Check all gear that touched water and leave behind any weed or debris.

• Clean gear with a simple solution of 5% dishwashing liquid (one tablespoon per 250mls of water). The solution can be tipped into anchor wells, bilge areas, kayak hulls and sprayed onto wet surfaces and fishing gear. Absorbent materials, such as lifejackets, wetsuits, booties and tramping boots can be soaked for several minutes

• Dry gear inside and out for at least 24 hours before visiting another waterway.

“Following these simple procedures will help stop freshwater pests from spreading throughout New Zealand’s waterways. If we all do our bit, we’ll protect our waterways for future generations,” said Ms Maxwell.

For more information about didymo and other freshwater pests visit www.mpi.govt.nz/check-clean-dry .

To report suspected Didymo or other pests, phone the hotline immediately on 0800 80 99 66.

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Police in Mississippi's capital city say two children have been hospitalized after being shot while riding in a vehicle.

A Jackson Police Department spokesman, Sam Brown, says the shootings happened Tuesday.

The 13-year-old and the 1-year-old were in a vehicle with their mother, their grandmother and another adult.

Shots came from another vehicle, hitting the children. None of the adults in the vehicle with the children was hurt. Police were searching for two suspects.

Instruction: Retrieve semantically similar text.


Question:
For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO and CDC websites.

Smartphone shipments saw their biggest ever drop in February as the novel coronavirus ravaged China, one of the world's largest markets and a vital manufacturing hub.

Worldwide, phone shipments fell 38% to 61.8 million units in February 2020, from 99.2 million units in the same month last year, according to Strategy Analytics. The firm attributed the "huge" drop to a collapse in demand in Asia.

"February 2020 saw the biggest fall ever in the history of the worldwide smartphone market," Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston said. "Supply and demand of smartphones plunged in China, slumped across Asia and slowed in the rest of the world. It is a period the smartphone industry will want to forget."

Now playing: Watch this: 3 new Apple products and more on the way

The news follows warnings by companies like Apple that they likely won't meet their expected sales targets because of the coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. Apple in February cited two reasons for its update: The coronavirus was hurting both demand from Chinese customers and production capabilities inside the country. China is one of the world's biggest markets and the primary location where devices like the iPhone are assembled. Because factories are coming online later, there'll be iPhone shortages around the globe, Apple has said.

The coronavirus is changing the way we live and forcing people across the globe to stay at home and isolate themselves from others. The pandemic has caused schools to close, while other closures have swept across the US, from Broadway theaters to NBA venues. Starting Tuesday, the San Francisco Bay Area was put on lockdown, with citizens ordered to stay at home except for essential outings. It followed places like France and Spain in limiting the movement of the public, and the rest of California joined the lockdown on Thursday. The state of New York followed suit Friday.

A slow recovery?

Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf told CNBC on Thursday that phone purchases in China have returned to normal as the country recovers from the coronavirus outbreak. Qualcomm is the world's biggest handset maker, supplying wireless chips to Apple, Samsung and most of the other major phone vendors in the world.

"if you're just looking at activations of cellphones in China ... at the end of January, you saw a big dip," Mollenkopf said. But purchases in that country have recovered in March. "It's really turned back to the same level you had a year ago," he said. "It clearly was a very difficult time in February, but it's good to see that returning."

He added that Qualcomm's customers -- the companies designing phones -- have seen their supply chains return to about 70% to 80% capacity.

Still, Strategy Analytics analyst Yiwen Wu on Friday warned that global smartphone shipments will remain weak throughout this month.

"The coronavirus scare has spread to Europe, North America and elsewhere, and hundreds of millions of affluent consumers are in lockdown, unable or unwilling to shop for new devices," Wu said. "The smartphone industry will have to work harder than ever to lift sales in the coming weeks, such as online flash sales or generous discounts on bundling with hot products like smartwatches."

Apple, for its part, has reopened its stores in China but has closed all its retail locations outside the Asian country, indefinitely. It also has limited online iPhone purchases as COVID-19 constrains its supply chain. Consumers can buy only two iPhones or iPads per person. The last time Apple imposed such limits was 2007, when the original iPhone came out.

Apple this week introduced two new products, a new iPad with a keyboard case that has a trackpad, as well as an updated MacBook Air.

February was set to be a big month for the phone industry, with its major annual Mobile World Congress showcase, where many new phones are unveiled for the first time.

Money

Jeff Bezos is still the richest person in the world, even after losing $10 billion in one year.

The Amazon founder held onto the top spot in the final day of the 2019 Bloomberg Billionaire Index with an estimated net worth of $115 billion. He’s trailed closely by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, whose estimated worth is $113 billion.

Bezos, Gates and French business magnate Bernard Arnault are the only three billionaires on the list whose net worths exceed $100 billion.

Bezos was expected to lose the top spot in the billionaire index after a choppy year for his finances. As part of his divorce settlement with ex-wife Mackenzie Bezos, he held onto 75% of the couple’s Amazon stock.

The rest went to his former wife, who also received a 4% stake in the company. That amounted to around $37 billion, making her the 25th-richest person in the world.

Gates briefly toppled Bezos in November after Amazon profits fell nearly 28% from the previous year while Microsoft shares soared 48%. But his time at the top was short-lived.

Familiar faces round out the current top 10. Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg clock in fourth and fifth. The Facebook founder added a staggering $26.3 billion to his personal wealth this year.

Julia Flesher Koch, widow of conservative businessman David Koch and the only woman in the top 10, is worth $62 billion.

Every year when the clock strikes midnight, new rates and regulations come into effect across Saskatchewan.

Although some changes will not arrive until later in the year, such as the Federal Carbon Tax increase that applies to power and energy bills, there are a number of changes that will take effect in the new year of 2020.

Federal

The federal carbon tax will increase from $20 to $30 per tonne of emissions on April 1, 2020. Those changes apply to SaskPower and SaskEnergy bills. Municipal services like Saskatoon Light and Power historically follow the lead of SaskPower and adopt any provincial rate increases.

The federal government is providing the following climate change incentives for Saskatchewan residents:

$405 for single adults or the first adult in a couple

$202 for the second adult in a couple or the first child of a single parent

$101 for each child under 18 (starting with the second child for single parents)

These incentives mean a family of four could receive $809 annually. The credits will be paid through personal income tax returns.

Provincial

New legislation to regulate the insurance industry will come into effect on Jan. 1, 2020.

The Insurance Act will replace the The Saskatchewan Insurance Act.

The province said the new act includes new licensing and supervision requirements and outlines new market conduct standards, among other changes it said will protect consumers.

According to the province, it also includes new complaint-handling measures so consumers know where to take complaints and disputes, such as to an ombudservice or the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.

Regina

In Regina, a property tax increase of 3.25 per cent will occur in 2020. It will be the lowest increase in a decade of property tax hikes.

New smoke alarm regulations will also come into effect on Jan. 1, 2020. Rental properties must now have hardwired smoke alarms with a battery back-up on levels with sleeping rooms.

Landlords must also ensure that 10-year tamper-proof lithium battery-operated smoke alarms are on all levels without sleeping rooms if they do not already have hardwired, interconnected smoke alarms. The new alarms must be in place by Jan. 1, 2020.

Landlords can be prosecuted if a fire occurs and they are in breach of the regulations.

Saskatoon

Property taxes will increase by 3.7 per cent in Saskatoon. Although the tax is increasing, it's a smaller jump than in 2019, when the tax rate went up 4.4 per cent.

Saskatoon Light and Power rates will increase by 2.4 per cent in 2020. The carbon tax charge for residential customers will increase from $0.34 per kilowatt hour to $0.63 per kWh.

Water and wastewater costs will increase by 4.1 per cent.

Bigg Boss 13 saw the first nomination task of the New Year today. In the morning, Rashami Desai complained that food is not being made on time. Mahira Sharma who cooks daily got really upset and started shouting. Paras Chhabra came to her defense. He said she would not cook any more. Later, Sidharth Shukla made her understand. Mahira Sharma was also nominated by a number of members. However, she held her ground and answered back to everyone. The housemates also said that Paras Chhabra had no other work than look after Mahira. But the lady has given it back...This is how Twitter reacted to Mahira's statements...

Aaj Asim ne abuse kya #MahiraSharma ko to kisi celebrity ne tweet nahi kya,aurton ki izzat nahi krta badtameez hai But agar yahi #SidharthShukla ne kiya hota to aajate sab jhund bana k tweet par tweet krte.

Bolye @GAUAHAR_KHAN aunty ji, soch to liya hoga kaise Asim ko sahi bolu. — Roshni ||? #SidHearts❤ (@roshni_khanam) January 1, 2020

#MahiraSharma: Sorry apko Kutta bol diya!!!

Unko bura lag jayega, kyuki kutte wafadaar hote hain!! Mahira killing it today ?? — Maaz (@Maaz20877942) January 1, 2020

#MahiraSharma was lit ??

Kya dhoya sabko single-handedly... — Happy (SidHeart♥) (@oyehappy) January 1, 2020

Yes. We should vote for #MahiraSharma . In this phase of the show Sidharth Shukla a strong and loyal friend like Mahira Sharma. Thanks Mahira and Paras. #SidharthShukla #MahiraSharma #ParasChabbra #BiggBoss — Anup Biswas (@AnupBis71680145) January 1, 2020

Mahira killed it today???#MahiraSharma : Har waqt #SidharthShukla k peechay paray rehtay hain Pehlay #ParasChhabra chahye tha phir #Arhaan ab isko #Assim chaye

Khud kuch kar lai TRashmi Aunty

??? Go & Vote For Mahira #bb13 #BiggBoss13 @BiggBoss@ColorsTV — Bigg Boss 13 Official (@BiggBoss_13) January 1, 2020

#MahiraSharma: Sorry apko Kutta bol diya!!!

Unko bura lag jayega, kyuki kutte wafadaar hote hain!! Mahira killing it today ?#BB13 #BiggBoss13 — Sandeep Tanwar Sidheart ❤ (@sandeep353055) January 1, 2020

Today’s episode her punches were upto the mark

Mahira to madhurima- main paras k bina zero hu,aap ek dusre k bina ke zero,best one liner by #MahiraSharma #SiddharthShukla kaa influence hai — Sushmita Das (@Drsushmitalone7) January 1, 2020

We can see that Mahira Sharma is coming into her own in the game. It will be fun to see her fierce side. Paras Chhabra and Mahira's bond is the strongest in the house. Stay tuned to BollywoodLife for more scoops and updates!

As the curtain falls on 2019, one significant journey will for long be remembered by Nigerians, South Africans and entire African continent: President Muhammadu Buhari’s historic three-day visit to South Africa, October 3-5th, 2019. Before the visit, fear and anxiety had engulfed the continent, and cries of xenophobic attacks ruled the air waves. Daily figures of casualties, both real and imagined, flared tempers, and reprisals were already taking a toll on South African business interests abroad.

Headlines, local and international, were metaphoric, pumping adrenaline: “Africa’s Big Brothers at War’’, “Africa’s Two Largest Economies Set for Show Down’’, “Xenophobic Attacks Record More Casualties’’, “Bad Blood Between Two African Powerhouses’’ and “Ramaphosa’s Shame’’. For the period, Africa’s policy of brothers’ keeper was tested. The theatre of the absurd, which started in South Africa, Africa’s second largest economy, was fast consuming lives and relations. Citizens of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Somalia were leaving. All hope rested on President Buhari and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa.

On September 4th, 2019, following more attacks and reports of killings, Nigerian delegation to the 28th World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, which was to be led by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, shelved participation. “Clearly with this climate, he (Osinbajo) and Mr. President have agreed that he should not go,” Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama explained. Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Malawi’s Peter Mutharika had earlier pulled out of the conference, citing various reasons.

In South Africa, the onslaught on foreign businesses, largely attributed to frustration from growing unemployment, and allegations of misgivings and poor conduct of some foreigners, had become unbearable. To further register Nigeria’s chagrin, the High Commissioner to South Africa, Amb. Kabiru Bala was called to Nigeria for briefing, and the South African acting High Commissioner, Bobby Moroe, was invited by the Minister of Foreign Affairs over the deteriorating situation. For safety, South African High Commission in Abuja and other businesses across the country were closed.

On September 5th, 2019, President Buhari despatched a special envoy to South Africa. The special envoy, who is Director General of Nigeria’s National Intelligence Agency, Amb. Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, met with South Africa’s President and expressed Nigeria’s displeasure over the treatment of her citizens. President Ramaphosa gave an assurance on safety of lives and property, attributing attacks to criminal elements.

On September 16, 2019, President Ramaphosa’s special envoy, Mr Jeff Radebe, was received at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. At the meeting, a statement by Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President, Media and Publicity, quoted President Buhari as saying: “Going back to historical antecedents, we made great sacrifices for South Africa to become a free state. I was a junior officer to Gen. Murtala Muhammad, and Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo. They were not operating in a democracy, but they got Nigerians to support them in the bid to see a free South Africa. Our leadership was quite committed to the cause. We made sacrifices, which younger people of today may not know. During my last visit to South Africa with the late President Robert Mugabe, it was very emotional, as Mugabe spoke about Nigeria’s contribution to free South Africa.” Radebe apologized on behalf of his President for what he called “acts of criminality and violence” that recently occurred, adding that “such do not represent our value system, nor those of the larger number of South Africans.”

On September 11, 2019, the first set of Nigerians evacuated by a private airline, Air Peace, arrived in Lagos, mostly women and children. More than 600 Nigerians were flown out of the country by the airline. “We had long delays with issues of biometrics by the host country, and people were frustrated. The tension was high. When it was eventually waived, teary Nigerians started the national anthem. It was such a touching moment,’’ Nigeria’s Consular General in Johannesburg, Amb. Godwin Adama, said. Adama had spent many sleepless nights ensuring safety of citizens at the height of the diplomatic uproar.

In Nigeria, South African businesses were at high risk. Initial attacks, spurred by looters, were quickly nipped in the bud. The Police made arrests, and protected all business outfits. The atmosphere of bitterness and mutual suspicion persisted. In spite of arrests in Johannesburg and Pretoria, foreigners kept fleeing the country.

On August 11, 2019, President Buhari had agreed to visit South Africa, after a phone conversation with President Ramaphosa. The President spoke with the South African leader from his country home in Daura, Katsina State. In spite of the escalation of violence and destruction of Nigerian businesses in following weeks, he kept his promise. A statement by Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, that President Buhari would visit South Africa was greeted with mixed feelings. In Nigeria, some felt it was belittling for the Nigerian leader to visit South Africa since the crisis started from there, while others said it was unsafe. For some, since Nigeria played a significant role in the fight against apartheid, it deserved more respect. The President was unperturbed, preferring heart-to-heart talks to resolve the issues, not diplomatic ego tripping.

At 9.10pm, October 3, 2019, President Buhari arrived at the South African Air force Base, Waterkloof, Pretoria and was received by Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr. Naledi Pandor and Minister of Social Development, Ms. Lindiwe Zulu. Apart from the State visit, the President attended the 9th meeting of the Bi-National Commission, alongside President Ramaphosa. The Bi-National Commission for the first time witnessed the participation of two Heads of State after an elevation. The warmth and friendliness when the leaders met at the Union Building signalled intention for harmony. The elaborate, colourful military welcome ceremony at the South African administrative hub, tête-à-tête to discuss issues of mutual interests relating to the welfare of citizens, and review of 32 agreements/MOUs of the Bi-National Commission dowsed all fears and uncertainty on Nigeria/South Africa relations.

At every turn, which include press briefing, bi-national commission meeting and the state dinner, both leaders stood on a common reconciliatory ground, condemning the strings of attacks, and assuring their citizens of an early warning signal framework, need for more tolerance in a rising competitive world and closer working relationship to promote greater harmony. They also promised implementation of the MOUs from the Bi-National Commission to promote more Nigerian investments in South Africa.

“Going further back in recent history, during the dark days of the fight against apartheid, Nigeria was formally designated a Frontline State, notwithstanding the fact that we were not geographically in Southern Africa. It was rather in recognition of the political, human and material support and sacrifices of the Nigerian Government and people for South Africa,’’ President said at the State Dinner. “Nigerian workers, students and the Government made great contributions and stood shoulder to shoulder with the peoples of Southern Africa in their struggles against colonialism and apartheid.’’

President Ramaphosa apologised for the loss of lives of foreigners, damages to property and strained relations, with an assurance: “Your Excellency, we owe our freedom to the people of Nigeria and the people of Africa. We pay tribute to Nigeria’s tireless support for the international campaign against apartheid. We will not forget how Nigeria spearheaded the call for political and economic sanctions against apartheid South Africa following the Sharpeville Massacre of 21 March 1960, which left many unarmed demonstrators dead.

“We will not forget the great sacrifices made by the Nigerian people in the 1970s and 1980s for the freedom that South Africans enjoy today. Without Nigerian support, our freedom would have come at a much greater cost. We will never forget the great debt we owe you and we will never allow the lawless actions of a few to undermine the bonds of friendship between our peoples.’’

Months after President Buhari’s visit, Nigerians in South Africa enjoy a more peaceful stay, and South African citizens and businesses in Nigeria continue to thrive, unhindered. In both countries, 2019 end-of-year thanksgivings captured the visit that ushered in harmonious living and understanding.

On December 17th, 2019, after receiving Letters of Credence from South Africa’s new High Commissioner to Nigeria, T.D. Mseleku, President Buhari said: “At the end of our visit to South Africa, all those that were expressing doubts and fears had nothing to say. The visit was spectacular in many ways. Please give my deep appreciation to President Ramaphosa.’’ The President said former South African President, Nelson Mandela’s legacy of forgiveness, sacrifice and humility should be Africa’s template for leadership, and peaceful co-existence.

Oche Echeija Egwa is a Press Officer in the Office of the Special Adviser to the President, Media and Publicity.

Getty

The workforce can sometimes feel like a dog-eat-dog world where winners win, losers lose, and everyone else is left by the road feeling disillusioned, disengaged or, otherwise, simply dissed. Still, you know you need to press whatever advantage you have against the competition, against the status quo and against indifference. If you are reading this, you’re likely in the arena and seeking to advance your career against unyielding headwinds with hopes that, in this New Year, you’ll experience greater levels of career success. But the truth is that this year will likely end up just like all the prior ones unless you change the game and have the courage to make different—even bolder—career moves.

Rather than spending your time following a rule book that causes you to spin your wheels getting nowhere fast, I suggest you throw it out altogether. Instead of trying to work through traditional and flawed career paradigms, I challenge you to break out of them completely because your next best career move can’t be found there.

Stop following outdated and obsolete career advice.

The best career move you can make to achieve success is to stop doing something. Absolutely stop following outdated and obsolete career advice.

Have you had internal struggles with wanting to break free, take more risks and try new things but also felt bound by old rules? Do old rules about risk, about change, about success and about careers create difficulties for you? Oh, the shame and conflict of it all. Have you ever been told to play to win but then ridiculed if you lose? What about change? Have you ever been told to be open to change but then pulled back because you were changing things too much and too fast?

Following the old (traditional) rule book has surely worked out well for some. But for many, many others, it has become an emotional burden, created career turmoil and led to hugely negative career experiences such as these:

You end up working a job you hate for years because you took it as a placeholder thinking that something better would come along. Nothing better ever came, and now you feel typecast and stuck.

You started working for a company you love but ended up miserable because you’ve been skipped over for promotions year after year or haven’t received the pay raises you thought you deserved.

You love the work you do and the company you work for, but you don’t have flexibility with your schedule and find it more and more difficult to have any work-life balance.

You are in a highly sought after or respected profession such as law or medicine, and you earn very good money, but you’re only doing it to accommodate career expectations or standards that someone else set for you. The old rules say to adhere to society’s pressures because happiness and fulfillment are second to money and status. You’ve sacrificed your freedom to choose, and now you aren’t fulfilled.

Try something new and different this year.

Challenge yourself to stop following outdated and obsolete career advice or outdated resume advice, and try these things instead.

Instead of waiting to climb the career ladder, just break the damn thing.

Yes, you can cut in line rather than patiently wait your turn. Better yet, skip the line completely. The rules about who gets up to bat next have completely gone out the door. If you have any doubt about this, just look at politics (younger upstarts have been taking out long-serving, experienced players every cycle).

But the same thing is happening in regular workplaces more and more too. Employers are looking for new talent with new, innovative thinking and ideas. They want hungry, competitive people with fresh perspectives. If you find yourself off on the sidelines trying to count up how many years you have to wait before you can apply for your boss’s job, you are setting yourself up for deep disappointment and regret. If you are serious about getting that job, I recommend you get your bosses job (the title at least) at another company if you have to. There’s no reason for you to wait many years—even decades—before you can advance up the career ladder. You have to explore other options, even outside the company if you must. Instead of working your way up the ladder, you can choose to shrewdly go around it.

Instead of quitting your job to start a business, add on a side gig.

If you have a strong pull toward entrepreneurship but also need to be able to pay your bills and have money for your business, don’t feel pressured to quit your job. You can do both and don’t have to feel guilty about pursuing something outside your “regular” job.

Also, you can take time to build up your business and client base before leaving your steady paycheck behind. Many successful entrepreneurs and business owners have done it that way. Do what works best for you and your family.

Instead of only applying for jobs when you meet 100% of the qualifications, go ahead apply if you only have 80%.

If you can describe how you can succeed in the job and clearly articulate the value you bring, employers are willing to take a chance with less experienced or less educated applicants. Focus your efforts on the stuff that’s harder to teach like so-called soft skills which actually are the harder skills to develop.

Help employers understand your strengths in areas where they most struggle to find talent. Persuade an interviewer that you bring a unique set of leadership, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, communication, negotiation or decision-making skills, and you just might get a real close look. Make employers view you as trustworthy with integrity, and you very well may take that job from more experienced candidates.

Instead of hoping that you don’t lose, go ahead and play to win by taking calculated career risks.

Successful people in fulfilled careers play to win while unsuccessful people just hope they don’t lose while trying to avoid risk at all costs. It is acceptable, even mandatory, to take more risks in this new career paradigm. It’s not just about risk for those who want to become an entrepreneur, but employees at all levels make career decisions that are risky so that they can advance in today’s environment and compete for the best jobs.

Been on your job for two years and want to leave to work for a different company? Do it. Job hopping doesn’t have nearly the same stigma that it used to. Actually, the greater problems for your career today are the risks that come with staying in the same job for too long, failing to diversify your career portfolio and neglecting to keep your skills and talents current. Each of these will cause more lasting career damage than job hopping (so long as you put in approximately two years on the job).

Want to walk away from a comfortable, good-paying job because you aren’t growing? Do it. What is the worst thing that can happen? If things don’t work out with another job, or you can’t take your side gig full time, just do what it takes to get another job.

Want to quit your job to start your own business? Do it. If you can handle it financially and are just burning with passion to put all your energy in on starting your business, go ahead and take the risk.

Willing to take a job with less pay so that you can make a career change or transition into a completely different career path that you’re more passionate about? Do it.

These are not radical suggestions. This is what the most successful people are doing today and what they have been doing for decades. It has become necessary for all of us to consider our careers against the winds of the future world of work. This includes diversified portfolios, multiple revenue streams, digital transformation (i.e., automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, etc.) and greater levels of employee competition. Are you playing to win?

Outdated and obsolete career advice won’t help you.

While outdated and obsolete career advice won’t help you, trying something new and different will. New and different will help you compete in this dynamic and ever-changing workforce, and the good news is that you get to decide for yourself what career decisions you make or don’t make. You also get to live with the benefits, rewards and consequences (the good and the bad).

Are you ready to throw out outdated and obsolete career advice? Will you ignore it, and instead try something new and different to advance your career this year? Or will you be sitting where you are at the end of this year griping about your employer, your job or your career? It’s a new day, and it’s all up to you.

Instruction: Retrieve semantically similar text.


Question:
A woman’s footage of an apparent TV theft in Langford has been shared hundreds of times on social media.

Shannon Burnside shared a post on New Year’s Eve around 4:30 p.m. of a black SUV with a stolen TV hanging out of the back passenger’s side door. A man can be seen running alongside the car and jumping in before the driver speeds off, narrowly missing stopped vehicles.

READ ALSO: Brazen theft caught on tape in Victoria bicycle store

“These guys just stole this TV from Superstore,” Burnside wrote.

West Shore RCMP say they received a report of a stolen TV from the Langford Superstore and the incident remains under investigation. Management at Superstore declined for comment.

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It appears Boxing Week deals weren’t good enough for a pair of alleged thieves in Langford, B.C.

The pair were captured on camera hustling a flat screen television out of the Victoria suburb’s Superstore, and into a waiting SUV — before fleeing in a panic with the door still open and the TV hanging out.

READ MORE: More downtown Vancouver store owners say violent shoplifting is getting worse

Shannon Burnside told Global News the duo actually pushed her out of the way as they scrambled out the store’s “in” door, and partially loaded the television into the vehicle.

She said the SUV then almost drove off without one of the men “who was literally caught with his pants down.”

In the video, one of the alleged thieves can be seen appearing to break his stride to pull his pants up as the SUV jerks to a stop for him to jump in.

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READ MORE: Vancouver police change tone on rise in violent shoplifting incidents

Management at the Superstore declined to comment. Global News has requested comment from the West Shore RCMP.

Burnside said staff at the store thanked her for shooting the video, and wondered where the security guard had been.

The dinosaur formerly known as Nanotyrannus Friedrich Saurer/Alamy

Sometimes the simplest explanation is the right one. Two controversial dinosaur skeletons have been held up as evidence that Tyrannosaurus rex shared its environment with a second, tiny species of tyrannosaur. Now, a detailed study of the fossilised leg bones suggests the diminutive dinos are really just teenage T. rexes.

The two skeletons, one nearly complete, were discovered in the early 2000s in rocks known as the Hell Creek Formation, which spans Montana, Wyoming and North and South Dakota. The formation also yielded some of the first T. rex bones, early in the 20th century.

The more complete specimen is nicknamed Jane, and the other is nicknamed Petey. Along with one other small skull found in 1942, they have been used to argue for a new type of dinosaur called Nanotyrannus, which was like a T. rex but smaller.

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As researchers performed more detailed analysis of the specimens, it seemed more and more likely that the small predators were simply young T. rexes, but there was still some disagreement. The newest analysis by Holly Woodward at Oklahoma State University and her colleagues may be the final nail in the coffin of Nanotyrannus.

Read more: T. rex evolved into a monster predator by dumbing down its brain

All modern vertebrates have a period every year where bone growth briefly pauses. We don’t know exactly why this happens, but it leaves a circle in every bone that shows when the growth stopped, Woodward says. “We can just count the rings like with a tree to find the dinosaur’s age.”

Woodward and her team counted the rings in Jane and Petey’s femurs and tibias. They found that Jane was probably around 13 years old and Petey about 15 when they died. Other fossils such as Sue, one of the largest and most complete T. rex skeletons we’ve found, have shown that T. rexes lived to around 30, so that makes Jane and Petey adolescents. Because they are so young, there is no need to invoke a whole new species to explain their small size.

“We know the T. rex as this giant king of dinosaurs,” says Woodward. “But it didn’t start that way, and we didn’t know much about how it got from baby T. rex-sized… to Sue-sized.”

At a little more than half Sue’s 12.3-metre body length, these young dinos are starting to fill in that gap.

Journal reference: Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax6250

Citizen Action of New York Celebrates Enactment of Pretrial Justice Reforms

Albany, NY — In response to the January 1, 2020 enactment of historic pretrial justice reforms, Amy Jones, Community Organizer, Citizen Action of New York, said:

“Today, New Yorkers across the state are celebrating enactment of our new bail, discovery and speedy trial laws. People power, years of fierce advocacy and the resolve of our partners and elected allies have delivered a powerful blow to an injustice system that has criminalized race and poverty, destroyed lives and caged legally innocent people for generations. These reforms are long overdue, and help move us towards a “justice” system that lives up to its name.

“This day is especially meaningful to me, because I personally fought on the frontlines to pass these laws. I have also suffered behind bars because I couldn’t afford the price tag on my freedom. I have been coerced into plea deals without knowing about the evidence against me. I know what the human costs of pretrial injustice are – and so I know it’s no exaggeration to say that countless lives will be saved as a result of these new laws.

“Mass incarceration has always been justified in the name of “public safety” – but we know from data and lived experience that bail and pretrial detention have never kept us safe. We also know that the old pretrial laws were weaponized against Black, Brown and poor people to maintain gross power imbalances and disparity in the system. The things that truly create safe and healthy communities are people being home with their children, keeping their homes, staying in school, earning money and remaining a part of community. The new pretrial laws help get us there.

“To be clear, there is much more work to be done. But today, we commend the thousands of directly impacted people, advocates and New York’s elected leaders for taking this historic step towards justice.”

The attorney-general Christian Porter has suggested the higher rate of hourly pay casual workers receive mean many will have “already made provisions” if forced to take two-weeks unpaid leave because of the coronavirus crisis, and the government will not “jump to a solution in anticipation of a problem”.

As the government struggles to answer what solutions it is putting in place for Australia’s 3.3 million unsecured workforce, who do not receive sick leave entitlements, Porter told the ABC he did not expect it to be a universal problem.

“Many people would have already made provisions for that because of course the purpose of casual employment is that you’re paid extra in-lieu of the types of entitlements,” he said.

“If it is the case that large numbers of people in particular industry sectors by virtue of the casual nature of their employment are having these types of problems and that is something we’re aware could happen, that is something that can be responded to, likely through the welfare system, but there might be other options.

“We’re not going to jump to a solution in anticipation of a problem that is broad before that problem has arisen or we reasonably know that it will arise.”

Morrison warns coronavirus hit could be worse than GFC amid recession predictions Read more

Earlier, Labor had warned the Morrison government not to drag its feet on help for casual workers in the midst of a looming coronavirus employment crisis, after a roundtable discussion on the issue led to no concrete solutions for vulnerable employees.

Tony Burke and Linda Burney said Australia’s casual and contract workforce could not afford to wait to learn whether or not they would be paid sick leave in the event they were forced to self-isolate for two weeks.

“If casuals aren’t given that reassurance sooner rather than later we run the risk people will turn up to work when they’re sick because they simply cannot afford to stay home and lose their pay,” the Labor MPs said.

“This isn’t just about supporting Australia’s often vulnerable or insecure casual workers – it’s about containing the spread of this virus.”

The government is yet to say whether or not it will support workers without sick leave entitlements as part of its coronavirus stimulus package.

Porter, who led a roundtable discussion with unions and employer and business groups on Tuesday, said the challenges faced by casual workers would be “one of the many things that need to be considered” by the government, but gave no answers on how it would do that.

“I think we’re preferring to see this problem as about how we make sure that businesses keep employing people and provide the goods and services that we rely on during challenging times,” he said afterwards.

“Of course there’s a sectorial component to that with different parts of the workforce being affected differently. We listened very carefully to what the unions have had to say, obviously, but they certainly weren’t the only voice in the room.”

The head of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Sally McManus, said the government needed to prioritise supporting casual workers who would be forced to take unpaid time off work to ensure the coronavirus was “contained and controlled”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ACTU secretary Sally McManus listens as industrial relations minister Christian Porter speaks during the coronavirus roundtable. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

“We do have to think about small businesses, because they’re also going to struggle if there’s a further downturn and so, for that reason, that’s why the government needs to play a role in supporting those workers and those contractors, small businesses in order to make sure people can look after themselves and keep healthy but also so the economy can keep operating,” she said.

“In terms of big business, we heard some encouraging signs today from big business representatives there, where they were saying that they’re ready to support their workforce and we’re ready to work with them to make sure that that happens as well.”

Labor has previously called for Newstart-like payments to be made available to any workers without sick pay who find themselves forced to self-isolate for two weeks.

The Australian Council of Social Service said it would welcome any form of assistance for vulnerable workers, including one-off stimulus payments, but called for the unemployment payment to be raised as a permanent measure.

Speaking to the Australian Financial Review business summit in Sydney on Tuesday, Scott Morrison said businesses, unions and even state governments needed to play their own role in steering Australia’s economy through the pandemic.

Australian government stimulus package promises financial support 'as fast as possible' Read more

“All of us are in a position today to be able to do what we need to do, over the course of this virus crisis to strengthen and see the Australian economy through,” he said.

“And it requires I think that mindset, if you want to have a bounce back stronger on the other side, then it will require I think using those balance sheets that you’ve built for such a time as this, to ensure that Australia emerges stronger.”

Porter also warned unions against the “temptation” to take industrial action during the pandemic, a prospect which has not been floated, as the government worked to protect supply chains.

“I think this is a very bad time for industrial action. I mean, there will always be a temptation to have industrial action when it has the greatest effect,” he said.

“Industrial action of any type at the moment would have a very, very large and negative effect. The reality is that there are already businesses suffering from disruptions to supply chains – that will mean that it will become harder for them to produce the goods and services that we all rely on every day.”

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North Carolina is poised to gain a new congressional seat in 2020, giving the state more clout in Congress and presidential elections.

It also raises the stakes in this year races for the state legislature, which draws the districts.

North Carolina would be one of seven states to gain at least one House seat, according to an analysis of new census numbers by Election Data Services.

That would give the state 14 House members -- and 16 electoral votes. That's as many as Georgia and more than all but six states.

"Every election is critical, but this one is even more so," said political scientist Chris Cooper of Western Carolina University. "There's a lot at stake in 2020 because even more will be at stake in 2022 and 2024."

U.S. Census Bureau estimates released this week show the state's population grew 10% since 2010, to 10.5 million. That's part of a pattern that saw the South grow faster than any region in the country.

North Carolina added 106,000 people in the decade, about the population of High Point and more than all but Texas, Florida and Arizona. According to EDS, those states also are expected to gain congressional seats along with Colorado, Montana and Oregon.

Ten states including New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan are each projected to lose a seat.

Final population numbers will be determined by the 2020 Census, which officially kicks off this spring. N.C. state and local officials have urged people to make sure they're counted.

'Ground zero'

North Carolina last added a congressional seat — the 13th — in 2002 following the 2000 census.

A new seat now would mean a new round of reapportionment, or dividing the state into 14 districts, not 13. It would happen in 2021 along with the redistricting of congressional and legislative districts that normally occurs after every census. (In North Carolina, court rulings, including two in 2019, have made it a more regular occurrence.)

After Republicans won the General Assembly in 2010 for the first time in more than a century and with it the right to draw voting districts, they passed redistrictings that for a time gave them veto-proof super-majorities in both chambers.

"The redistricting puts added emphasis and importance on (the election) for both sides," said Democratic consultant Thomas Mills. "After 2010 people in North Carolina see the census year as the most important election year we've got going."

Reapportionment and redistricting are just one reason both parties will fight hard for the state in 2020.

North Carolina will feature a race that will help determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. It also has races for governor, Council of State and Supreme Court. A closely divided state, it's a presidential battleground that will host the 2020 Republican convention.

"It's safe to say North Carolina is ground zero for national politics in 2020," said Dee Stewart, a Republican strategist. "(And) it makes the stakes much higher for the legislative races."

Impact in Congress

When North Carolina does gain a new seat, it's hard to say exactly where it would be.

Wake and Mecklenburg are the largest counties. But suburban areas and retirement destinations like coastal Brunswick County were among the fastest growing in 2017, according to the University of North Carolina's Carolina Demography.

Gerry Cohen, a former longtime legislative official, said while it's unclear where a new district would be created, a likely scenario would be that the 12th and 2nd Districts— now comprising large parts of Mecklenburg and Wake counties — to shrink within their respective counties. That would mean parts of those counties would be added to other districts, and potentially a new one in the Piedmont between the population centers.

"So there isn't a particular place where a new seat would be added," he said. "It's likely in that corridor."

Even without a new seat, North Carolina's new court-ordered congressional districts already are already expected to have an impact on Congress.

Republicans, who currently have 10 of the state's 13 House seats, are only expected to gain eight under the maps that will be in effect in 2020.

"The changes in North Carolina should give Democrats a couple of extra seats in their pocket as they defend their House majority," wrote analyst J. Miles Coleman of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.

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