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__label__wiki	0.927784	0.927784	The next frontier in Europe’s migrant crisis? Bulgaria Europe is cracking down in the Mediterranean, but refugees are flocking to a land route through the EU’s poorest country. By Elizabeth Dickinson SOFIA — Twenty-two year-old Ousay Sheikho tried 10 times to enter Europe before he finally found his way across the forested Turkey-Bulgaria border. He had walked during his first seven attempts, running cold nights along the Black Sea until Turkish security forces turned back his group of 26 refugees. Three times, he bought plane tickets to Italy, but without a visa, the Syrian national was either prevented from boarding or deported immediately. Finally, in March, Sheikho, his mother and his two sisters paid a smuggler to help them board an empty freight train from the Turkish border town of Edirne into Bulgaria. The train was just beginning to roll out of the station when their group of 30 migrants climbed on board an empty wheat car. After all his previous tries, the freighter seemed safe and clean. “It was like a hotel,” Sheikho jokes. Twenty minutes later, they pulled into station in the Bulgarian town of Harmanli. Throughout the spring, the European Union has been in the grips of a migration crisis as thousands of refugees traverse the Mediterranean in flimsy boats and skivvies. More than 1,800 such migrants died in the first months of 2015, attracting international attention with harrowing photos and tales of crossing the sea. European Union diplomats have responded with a number of proposals, both to stop the influx — an estimated 46,000 migrants have arrived in Europe over the past five months — and to save lives. And the EU is attempting a mass resettlement program, asking member states to take in a share of those refugees who arrive in Italy and Greece, via a quota system that is based on national income, unemployment rates and current refugee arrivals. Yet as Europe finally begins to reckon with this inundation of sea migrants, the land route into the continent — the path taken by Ousay Sheikho and so many more like him — is now the next frontier for refugees desperate to flee conflict, violence and oppression in not just Syria but Eritrea, Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq. This growing number of asylum seekers passes through Turkey and then wiggle through the cracks in Bulgaria’s newly built border fence. They jump into empty cargo trains or lorries. At times, smugglers take them through the forest, where they run for hours by night toward border towns. In the first four months of 2015, Bulgaria has seen the number of arrivals double compared to the same period in 2014. Already, in the first four months of 2015, Bulgaria has seen the number of arrivals double compared to the same period in 2014, which the government says was itself a record year. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees estimates that about 200 people now arrive in Bulgaria each week; the rate will likely only grow higher in the summer months, says Nikola Kazakov, president of Bulgaria’s state agency for refugees. The numbers could also rise if the EU cracks down on smugglers moving refugees by sea, leaving traffickers to search for new ways into the continent. “There will be this side effect that migration routes will divert,” says Darius Reinhardt, researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations. That leaves Bulgaria — the EU’s poorest country—with a serious crisis on its hands, and one that has ramifications throughout the continent. The vast majority of arrivals here plan to continue on to countries such as Germany and Sweden: There is no official tally of how many refugees have already left Bulgaria, but in the past 18 months, the country’s authorities have received 10,000 inquiries from other EU states about refugees claiming to be registered in Bulgaria—out of a total of about 15,000 migrants who entered the country during that time period. But current EU migration proposals won’t do much to help Bulgaria cope with the strain, as resettlement plans for now apply to migrants only in Italy and Greece. “The economic and social situation in this country, in practical terms, means that the problem is a lot bigger than it might look from the outside,” Bulgaria’s interior minister, Rumiana Bachvarova, said at a conference in Sofia in May. In the meantime, Bulgaria will see more of Ousay Sheikho and thousands of others like him who believe just about anywhere in Europe is better than their homelands. For his family, the refugee holding center where they are staying, in Sofia’s Voenna Rampa neighborhood, is merely a weigh station. Each day, he rises around 8 a.m., eats the breakfast his mother has prepared on a Dutch oven in their apartment and then heads to the center’s main entrance, where news about documents is posted in the morning on a windowpane. As soon as the family’s papers are ready, “We will go,” he says. “We will make our status, and head to Germany.” Like those arriving by sea, migrants traveling to or through Bulgaria are often fleeing dire circumstances at home — for them, there is no alternative but to go. The majority of refugees arriving in Bulgaria are Syrian, according to government figures, many from the Kurdish ethnic group. These days, most are fleeing militants from the Islamic State (ISIL), who took over Sheikho’s village, Kamshly, before the family fled. ISIL is also pushing more civilians out of Iraq, which now accounts for about 15 percent of refugees to Bulgaria. UNCHR expects that number to grow. Mohammed Diab Ahmed spent his life savings on the gamble that he and his family would arrive safely. The story of one recent arrival here shows just how much risk migrants are willing to take during the journey. Mohammed Diab Ahmed, a 42-year-old father of three who is among those fleeing the violence in his native Iraq, spent his life savings on the gamble that he and his family would arrive safely. Ahmed had been working in Baghdad as a staffer to the Sunni vice president, Tariq Al Hashimi, until Hashimi was controversially charged with murder by the Shia-led government of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki in 2011. The vice president flew to Turkey to avoid arrest, and his staffers scattered in fear — Ahmed to Anbar province, where he his extended family lives. But after two years, ISIL began to encroach on Anbar, finally capturing the provincial capital of Ramadi on May 17, several months after Ahmed left. “They wanted to kill me, as a former Iraq government employee,” he told me at the Voenna Rampa refugee center in May. “This journey I took was the only choice for me.” Over the course of several weeks earlier this spring, he handed over combined $10,500 to various smugglers, he says, in order to bring his five-member family Bulgaria. (Like those crossing the Mediterranean, migrants traveling through Bulgaria are increasingly turning to traffickers to make the often perilous trip. “It’s the majority of cases that are arriving via smuggling,” says Boris Cheshirkov, spokesman for UNHCR in Bulgaria. The family made it to Turkey but didn’t feel safe settling there; Europe was their goal. Ahmed had heard from fellow migrants that refugees could buy smuggling packages into Europe in the Istanbul neighborhood of Aksaray. An office there took $2,000 per person and promised to get them to Bulgaria. On the night it happened, smugglers rushed his family into one of two vans full of migrants headed toward the border. When they stopped driving, the smugglers pointed ahead: Bulgaria is there. Ahmed’s family ran for two days until they arrived in a small border town, ill and freezing, and were swept up by police in a small village. For many migrants, arriving in Bulgaria offers only temporarily relief. Conditions are far different from what many say they imagined Europe to be like. Facilities are growing crowded, and job opportunities are scarce. Until mid-2013, about 1,000 migrants per year consistently entered Bulgaria seeking refuge. The state refugee agency had 1,200 beds to house them in two reception centers, and the system worked. But in the course of just a few weeks that summer, as the conflict in Syria pushed toward the Turkish border, the numbers jumped more than tenfold. Now, 1,000 refugees were streaming in each month. More than 7,000 people had filed paperwork requesting protected status by the end of that year. Children are waiting in line to get help in the temporary refugee camp in Vrazdebna, Bulgaria, December 3, 2013. EPA Initially, refugees crammed into makeshift, government-run holding centers without services, medical care or food. In one fenced-off center in the town Harmanli, near the border, migrants were given summer tents to live in during the frosted winter months. Without translators to collect the refugees’ information, “many were left with little or no information about what was happening to them,” says UNHCR’s Cheshirkov. “In many cases, the only support they received was from the donations of volunteers and civil society.” By November 2013, conditions had grown so dire that UNHCR announced it was launching an emergency operation in Bulgaria—the first of its kind within the EU. The European Commission pitched in $7.6 million that month to construct four new reception centers, increasing capacity to some 6,000 beds today. UNHCR built new, modern kitchens in each of the six refugee centers. Sewage systems were either built or fixed. Several refugees I spoke to in the holding center near Sofia said they are comfortable in their small but clean quarters there, made from the repurposed classrooms of an abandoned school. Each room holds several bunk beds; hot meals are served twice a day. “It’s not comfortable like we imagined Europe would be,” Sheikho’s mother, Sheikha Ibrahim, says. “But we wouldn’t be here if there was no war in our country.” But many here are already warning about what will happen when — not if — refugee numbers surge again. The current space “is not enough at all, because the numbers continue to rise,” says Iliana Savova, director of the refugee and migrant program at the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, an NGO. “Imagine if Turkey were to open the border. That would mean total collapse. We would have no place to accommodate or feed them, or care for even their most basic needs.” Administrators at the holding center near Sofia are already feeling the strain. On a recent morning, the center’s director, Svetlin Zanez, was scrambling to try and arrange the beds of 12 new arrivals. “That’s only half of the arrivals today,” he said, holding up a list. “We are expecting 20 more in the afternoon.” The facility is 90 percent full. The state refugee agency says it has enough funding to keep working at its current pace through the end of the year, thanks in part to an EU grant of roughly $5.7 million. But authorities caution that they won’t be able to keep up if the pressure grows. There are no plans to expand current facilities, UNHCR says, and their upkeep is now in question: Some facilities have seen medical staff reduced or put on part-time contracts. “Our system will be very stretched,” says Kazakov of the state refugee agency. “We are too close to the conflict not to [be].” For a few brief weeks earlier this spring, the Voenna Rampa refugee holding center offered a class in German language. Refugees swarmed the course, Sheikho remembers; the volunteer teacher was overwhelmed. By comparison, just a handful of the center’s 800 residents attend a Bulgarian language course. Few of the refugees see a future for themselves here, after all, naming Germany, with among the best social services and most buoyant economies in the EU, as their final destination. Asylum seekers in the European Union are required to apply for refugee status—a form of permanent residency — in their country of arrival. Yet just because they are registered in Bulgaria doesn’t mean they’ll stay. Refugee documents provided by Sofia give their holders an ID card granting the same rights as a foreign resident of Bulgaria, and they can travel elsewhere in Europe using the paperwork. Those who arrive in Bulgaria might soon find it harder to resettle elsewhere, however, as countries across Europe begin to push back against the refugee influx. Although Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev has urged Europe to tackle the migrant crisis, Berlin is now one of several capitals calling on the EU to adopt a more equal distribution system for migrants, and in May, the European Commission laid out a plan to resettle 40,000 Syrians and Eritreans from their main arrival points in Italy and Greece across the EU. This scheme could eventually be expanded to include other arrival countries, such as Malta or Bulgaria, says Yves Pascouau, director of migration and mobility policies at the think tank European Policy Center, but for the moment, Bulgaria isn’t part of the EU’s migration plans. That will leave migrants in Bulgaria with scant resources to help them settle here. Once they have their papers, few leave the refugee holding centers; they have nowhere else to go. There is no integration program for migrants—no assistance in securing housing, learning the Bulgarian language or finding jobs. The state refugee agency says it is working on plans for a new integration program, but the budget hasn’t yet been approved by the Bulgarian government. Foreign refugees lining up to receive meat packages in a refugee camp in Sofia , Bulgaria 17 October 2013. EPA Some refugees have found work among the existing Syrian community in Bulgaria, one of Eastern Europe’s largest. But the jobs are mostly low skilled and low paid. And other opportunities are scarce for non-Bulgarian speakers. Even among its own citizens, Bulgaria has one of the highest jobless rates in Europe, with a youth unemployment rate above 20 percent. “The economic situation here is very difficult,” says Peter Atanassov, head of country of origin information at the state refugee agency. About a quarter of the refugees in Bulgaria today are children, but almost none of them are enrolled in local schools. Determined to move north into Europe, refugees are often loath to start adapting on their own. About a quarter of the refugees in Bulgaria today are children, but almost none of them are enrolled in local schools. Savova believes the lack of an integration program is convenient for government authorities who prefer that migrants leave. “It’s absolutely understandable why people don’t want to stay, because there is nothing here for them in terms of support,” she says. It doesn’t help that Bulgaria is inwardly focused, its healthcare system in shambles and its jobs market stagnant. In such a context, accepting refugees has been largely unpopular among both the public and politicians. Many communities particularly along the border are also wary of outsiders. A former Soviet state, Bulgaria has spent much of its recent history closed off to migration. The nationalities of the arrivals also cause concern. One official from the State Agency for National Security told a recent security conference in Sofia about concerns that fighters are hiding among legitimate refugees. “We have been a lot of Syrians who come here with humanitarian status, but we do have information that some of them have gone back to fight,” said Borslava Bratanova, an expert at the agency. In 2014, Bulgarian authorities began constructing a barbed-wire fence along the Turkish border that they plan to finish this year. Kazakov of the state refugee agency sees success: Fifty percent of arrivals now come through official border crossings, “which allow for better control of migrant flows, such that we can better fight traffickers,” he says. Yet UNHCR and several local NGOs say tighter security has had the opposite effect, “placing refugees in ever riskier situations and forcing them to take perilous journeys, often at the hands of smugglers and human traffickers,” according to Cheshirkov of UNHCR. Still, the determination of migrants is visible back in Voenna Rampa, where many refugees recount spending their life savings to reach Europe. A now-penniless Ahmed, from Iraq, says he will be happy to live simply here, because there’s peace. “There is no problem between the Bulgarian people, between races or religions. I see this, and it is good,” he said. “All I need is a job and a teacher for my children.” Elizabeth Dickinson is a Gulf-based Deca Stories journalist. More from ... Elizabeth Dickinson Frontex’s growing pains By Aitor Hernández-Morales, Jacopo Barigazzi and Zosia Wanat EU watchdog opens investigation into border agency Frontex MEPs grill head of EU border agency on migrant pushback allegations Commission issues guidelines on ‘integration’ to ease deal on migration pact By Jacopo Barigazzi and David M. Herszenhorn	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513009
__label__cc	0.663091	0.336909	The state of global finance Spring meeting to discuss global economic issues. By Nicholas Hirst Finance ministers from around the globe, together with thousands of officials and journalists, will descend on Washington, DC for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank from Tuesday until Sunday (14-19 April). The event will kick off on Tuesday with the IMF’s World Economic Outlook, its latest predictions for the global economy in 2015 and 2016. Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, will hold a press conference on Thursday (16 April). Pierre Moscovici, the European commissioner for economic and financial affairs, taxation and customs, and Werner Hoyer, the president of the European Investment Bank,will take part in a panel debate on climate-friendly financing. Neven Mimica, the European commissioner for international co-operation and development, will speak on “financing resilience”. Tensions between Greece and its creditors will loom large over the meeting. Many IMF members feel that the IMF was too generous in its dealings with Greece. Policymakers will also be interested in learning about the effects of the ECB’s programme of quantitative easing (see above). But other global financial issues, such as the appreciation of the dollar and the expected end to the US’s programme of quantitative easing, will also feature high on the agenda. More from ... Nicholas Hirst Christine Lagarde Pierre Moscovici	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513010
__label__cc	0.731292	0.268708	You are here: Home / Growing / Managing a Business / A Conversation with Brian Tracy A Conversation with Brian Tracy April 16, 2011 By Contributor 1 Comment Your new book, Full Engagement!: Inspire, Motivate, and Bring Out the Best in Your People takes on today’s common, and dreaded, management mandate: Do more with less. How can managers routinely pull off this feat? Brian Tracy: “Welcome to the new world of business. Managers today have to do more with less, and get better results from limited resources, more than ever before. One of the interesting outcomes of these challenging economic times is an increase in the level of per person output. Many companies are maintaining or increasing their levels of productivity and quality with fewer people, but with people who are better selected, better organized, and better managed. Achieving the highest possible return on human capital must be every manager’s goal. A good manager with a clear vision can quickly organize a group of average performers into a peak performance team that is capable of achieving tremendous results for the company. It’s not difficult; you just need to learn how to do it.” Let’s start with one of the most persistent questions in business: Why are some companies more successful and profitable than others? Brian Tracy: “The answer is simple: The best companies have the best managers. As a result, the best companies have the best people, and that means people who consistently outthink, outcompete, and outperform their competitors. The true measure of the value of any business leader and manager is performance. As I’ve found through working with all kinds of companies all over the world, there are two simple rules for success as a manager. Rule number one: Your life only gets better when you get better. Rule number two: Your people only get better when you get better. There is no real limit to how much better a person who really commits to getting better can get. Every manager has the potential to become an excellent manager for the rest of his or her career.” Source: BrianTracy.com That all sounds wonderful. But it raises another persistent question: How does a manager get the best out of each person who reports to him or her? Brian Tracy: “Again, the answer is simple: Make them feel happy. From the first step in the hiring process through to the final step in the retirement ceremony, make people feel happy with their work and their coworkers, in their interactions with customers, suppliers, and vendors, and with the way they are managed and rewarded. Throughout the centuries, wise men, researchers, and scientists of all kinds have sought a ‘unified field theory,’ a single umbrella-like principle that explains all other principles. In the area of management and motivation, ‘make them feel happy’ is the unified field theory.” “Make them feel happy” — that’s not a topic typically included in MBA programs. So, how can managers know what to do? Brian Tracy: “The challenge has nothing to do with not knowing what to do to make people feel happy at their work. Everyone knows exactly what to do. The problem is that we either forget to do those things that make people happy, neglect to do them because we are distracted by other things, refuse to do them because we don’t understand their importance, or worst of all, do things that actually make people unhappy and then justify our behavior with self-righteous excuses and rationalizations. The starting point is learning why and how people think and act the way they do. From there, a manager will understand how to get his or her people fully engaged in their jobs and how to get the most important results that their business depends on for success in an increasingly competitive marketplace. In Full Engagement!, I give managers a ‘crash course’ in making people feel happy so that they perform at their best.” Would you share a lesson or two? Brian Tracy: “The lessons are all simple ideas and easy to do. Managers can immediately apply them to create a peak performance work environment and to ensure that each person makes a maximum contribution to the company. Here’s an example: Ask people questions. Talk to them; ask them questions about how they are feeling today and how everything is going. When you express a genuine interest in other people, it makes them feel valuable, respected, and important. They’ll feel good inside and want to please you by doing a good job. Here’s another: Encourage improvement. Encourage people to come up with ideas to do their jobs better or to improve the company in any way possible. When someone comes up with an idea, no matter what you might think of it initially, encourage the person to try it out on a small scale to see if it works. The more ideas you encourage, the more ideas you are going to get. And when people are encouraged to use their creativity to do their job better, they feel much happier about themselves and the company.” Do you truly believe that all people are good, hardworking, and eager to do whatever is needed to make a valuable contribution if you just treat them nicely? Brian Tracy: “No, but neither do I believe that all people are lazy and undependable, and must be supervised constantly. In my estimation, the truth is closer to ‘Theory Z’ — my own contribution to motivational management, based on what I call the expediency factor. That is, people are expedient; they will always take the fastest and easiest way to get the things that they want right now, with little concern for the long-term consequences of their behavior. As a result, all people are basically the same in terms of motivation. Everyone wants to enjoy safety, security, belongingness, and self-esteem. Everyone wants to be successful, happy, and respected in their work. And people will do whatever they feel they need to do to achieve those goals. A manager’s job is to provide the environment where individuals are internally motivated to do the very best job possible, in the very best spirit possible, to make the very best contribution possible.” How can managers create the ideal environment for motivating the best possible performance within their company? Brian Tracy: “Be a leader. The leader sets the tone by the way he talks, behaves, responds to others, and treats people every day. People tend to ‘follow the leader’ in that they imitate or mimic the behavior of the leader towards others. When the leader treats other people with courtesy and respect, everyone eventually begins treating coworkers with the same courtesy and respect. As I demonstrate in Full Engagement!, there are specific behaviors that leaders can practice each day, and in each interaction, to make people feel good about themselves. There are also three things that a leader should never do: criticize, complain about, or condemn the personal behavior of another person. When managers deliberately take the time and make the effort to build self-esteem in other people and simultaneously eliminate the fears that hold people back from putting their whole hearts into their work, a peak performance workplace blooms naturally around them, like flowers in the spring.” © 2011 Brian Tracy, author of Full Engagement!: Inspire, Motivate, and Bring Out the Best in Your People Brian Tracy, author of Full Engagement!: Inspire, Motivate, and Bring Out the Best in Your People, is one of the top business speakers and authorites in the world today. He has spoken in almost every city in the US and Canada, and in 58 other countries. He addresses more than 250,000 people worldwide each year. He has written 50 books and produced more than 500 audio and video learning programs on management, motivation, and personal success. He is the president of Brian Tracy International as well as Business Growth Strategies, which is the preeminent Internet business learning portal in the world today. He lives is Solana Beach, California. For more information please visit http://www.briantracy.com and follow the author on Facebook and Twitter Filed Under: Managing a Business Tagged With: Managing Employees, leadership and management It`s true that to be a successful businessman as a CEO, you have to be fair with your business partners, colleagues, workers and other staff members. As Brian Tracy shared knowledge with us, by reading this article i noticed that retain your customer, organization members and all others who are involve in your business are the best practices from your side. It is the key success factor that if you find the trust of your workers to get better results from them for your customers and other business partners. Advantages and Disadvantages of Selling on QVC Home Shopping Network Starting a Coin Laundry Business	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513011
__label__cc	0.735714	0.264286	Asia Pacific Regional Headquarters:Singapore on top, but competition to increase (7 April 2016,Shanghai): Singapore remains the most attractive Asia Pacific destination for multi-national companies (MNCs) to set up their regional headquarters (RHQs), but competition is expected to intensify according to a report released today by DTZ/Cushman & Wakefield, a global leader in commercial real estate services. The report notes, that Asia Pacific is forecast to increase its share of Global GDP from 31% in 2015 to 36% in 2030. As businesses continue to seek locations that are close to their target growth markets, the number of RHQs located in Asia Pacific is therefore expected to increase. Dr Dominic Brown, Head of Australia and New Zealand Research and co-author of the report commented: “Economic growth in Asia Pacific will propel multi-national companies into the region. This growth is based upon the rise of the middle class in the region, growth in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) sector as well as economic growth in ASEAN.” The analysis shows that all of the six cities covered – Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Tokyo and Beijing – have their positive, and negative, aspects, but that on balance Singapore comes out on top. While Sydney and Tokyo are established RHQ destinations, their location on the geographic periphery of the Asia Pacific region counts against them both. However, recent depreciation of their respective currencies has resulted in a reduction in costs, which acts in their favor. Beijing has seen costs rise including cost of acquiring land as well increasing employment costs. As the political center of China, Beijing has its fair share of state-owned enterprises, however it is also quite entrepreneurial. Beijing is the country’s single largest hub of both mature TMT industries and incubator for related start-ups. Considering the top 3, Shanghai which placed third, has been the great improver – increasing from just 53 RHQs in 2003 to 470 in 2014 at an average annual growth rate of 21% per annum. Direct access into China has been the main propulsion behind the rise of Shanghai, though it has also been aided by its diverse economic base, access to local talent and that it is the commercial heart of China. However the rising cost of land and cost of leasing prime properties are concerns, as are rising salaries and mounting local business competition. Singapore and Hong Kong took the top two places respectively. Both are well established locations for RHQs and have longstanding favorable economic and regulatory environments that are designed to attract companies. However, Hong Kong faces a higher cost of living and increasing competition from Tier 1 Chinese cities. In addition, Hong Kong has regularly been near the top of the most expensive office locations around the world in which to rent space, normally placing behind London and New York. Indeed, on a per square meter basis, Hong Kong is practically twice as expensive as Shanghai and Singapore. The differences are further increased on a per workstation measure, with Hong Kong having the worst space efficiency of the three markets. In contrast, not only is Singapore the most space efficient market of the top three but as a result of rental decline in 2015, it is the cheapest on both a per square meter and per workstation basis. Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai will need to evolve to continue to attract and accommodate RHQs. The Hong Kong Government has made extensive efforts to address office shortages such as through decentralization to Kowloon East and Kowloon West. Similarly the Singaporean Government is encouraging development of space outside of the CBD in areas such as Jurong Gateway, Changi Business Park and Paya Lebar Central. Shanghai has no shortage of space, which acts as a positive. New industry hubs are being developed to aid the city’s development, for example the West Bank Media Port. David Jones, Head of Asia Pacific Client Coverage and Solutions, noted: “Companies can reduce occupancy costs through increasing space efficiency as well as moving into decentralized areas. Core CBD locations in general are expensive and have limited vacancy. For those companies that do not need to be in the CBD, industry specific hubs can offer agglomerations of scale, a cheaper price point and the potential for the development of a bespoke office solution.” In addition, the RHQ model itself is also changing and adapting to economic development in the region. In recognition of the economic diversity in the region, many companies are now progressing from the “one size fits all” approach to a “multi-nodal” approach. These strategic nodes are either developed through aiming to have a significant presence in each of the region’s major markets or by locating individual business units in their most relevant market. Dominic Brown added: “As the region continues to develop and advance, opportunities in emerging markets will begin to appear. For example, the rise and improving maturity of ASEAN economies is likely to offer substantial opportunities, not least because occupancy costs per workstation in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur are less than a third of those in Singapore.” Ultimately, Asia Pacific will remain a key region for MNCs which will continue to drive the need for space. Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai are the strongest all round performers. However, no individual city can offer a company everything that it needs, especially if that company has a diverse array of business units and requirements. Rather we expect to see smaller RHQs set up and for there to be numerous divisional headquarters across the region taking advantage of each city’s strengths. This plays to the rise of emerging markets. However, in all instances an in depth understanding of each city across the political, economic, demographic and real estate landscape is required, in order to maximize any opportunities that are presented. « Previous Post: Colliers Project Managers Lasso Costs That Threaten To Run Away Next Post: Built environment must do more to stimulate sustainable growth: Summers »	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513013
__label__wiki	0.502728	0.502728	INTERVIEW: How my ‘Daughters of Chibok’ film is changing lives – Kachi Benson byJayne Augoye Nigerian documentary filmmaker, Kachi Benson, attracted international attention after his short film, ‘Daughters of Chibok’ won best virtual reality story at the 76th Venice International Film Festival in September. He is the first African to win the coveted award. The film tells the story of one of the kidnapped girls from Chibok, Rifkatu Yakubu. The first-ever VR film on the infamous Chibok kidnappings also centres on Yana Galang, a woman leader in Chibok, whose daughter was among the kidnapped Chibok girls. Less than a year after the film was released, the impact is still being felt especially by the people of Chibok. Benson recently undertook an ambitious task of powering 93 homes in Chibok. He tells PREMIUM TIMES more in this interview. PT: How long did it take you to shoot ‘Daughters of Chibok’? Kachi: We camped in Chibok for about a week, then we came back to Lagos. After going through the footage, we decided to go back to Chibok and get some more shots. But we were advised not to go because it was the period when the elections were postponed. But I insisted. PT: In the film, there is a noticeable absence of the presence of the male folk in Chibok Kachi : No man intentionally, to the best of my knowledge, chose not to be in the film. What you saw in the film is a reflection of how society is in Chibok and how the home system and environment is. If you didn’t see any man at that time of the day, then there was no man. We didn’t chase any man away. The men would go out in the morning to go chase their hustle and then they come back in the evenings, which is usually what happens everywhere. But it is quite clear, at least from the perspective of the main character, my heroine, that women are the pillars of Chibok community; they are the pillars of the families, they are the ones that hold things together, and that you cannot hide or suppress. They take charge of their children and they are the ones that are the most passionate about sending their kids to school, especially their daughters. Kano government demolishes apartment used as kidnappers’ den Osun govt imposes curfew as coronavirus cases rise PT: So, will it be correct to say that women are the bedrock of Chibok society Kachi: Oh yes, they are. The women go to the farm and they cultivate nuts. During the harvest time, they harvest it with their kids, take it to the market, sell it, and from the proceeds, they are able to feed the children and send them to school. PT: Have the women seen the film? Kachi: Yes, Iyana, the lead character saw it and liked it. We also plan to screen the film in Chibok soon. PT: Why are you drawn to stories of conflict, human-interest stories? Kachi: If no one talks about these things, then who will? There is a lot that is not right with our society and we should talk about them. I am not averse to comedy skits and all kinds of things that people get involved in, but I think that it is important that we understand our history; our past and present, these are important things to talk about as well, we can’t just shy away from them. PT: Do you also draw inspiration from your personal experience? Kachi: After my parents separated, I experienced poverty first-hand, grief and pain for like two years. At a point, I was living in the church because there was nowhere else to stay. The next meal was always a struggle, so maybe that has made me have a bit more empathy for people. I can identify with them and I want to try and do something to help. So if my film is able to just amplify their voice, I feel like I have done something. In Africa, we have a saying that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. Women and children feel the worst impact of every conflict. They are the most vulnerable. When I started documenting victims of insurgency and all of that, it was really sad to see. I won’t lie; they are tough stories to tell. PT: Did your emotions get the better part of you during the pre and post-production stage? Kachi: Sometimes, I shoot and I can’t bring myself to edit it. But you have to confront the pain. Our decision to look away from the pain does not take it away, but when we decide to confront it, then maybe we can think of solutions. For example, in a community like Chibok that has not had power in ten years, 93 homes have been lit. If I chose not to make that film because I wanted to make more comfortable films, we would not be having this discussion today. I won’t have shown this film to Damilola Ogunbiyi and she won’t have said: “Oh, I am so touched by this film, I want to make a difference in the lives of these women.” That is a topic on the responsibility of filmmakers and making films that can actually mean something and can make a difference in people’s lives and not just for filmmaking’s sake. It goes back to what I was taught in film school about the agenda of every filmmaker. PT: Some people believe that we should not tell our stories in its raw form but repackage it for global acceptance. Kachi: I don’t agree. I think that at the end of the day, we still have to come back to the fundamental question that every documentary filmmaker should answer: ‘what is your agenda?’ Every other thing is peripheral. Your agenda is what makes you a storyteller. There are awards for technical expertise and excellence, but the biggest awards are for storytelling. So when you make a film about a man who is married to two wives and one of them wants to kill the other one so they can inherit all the money then chase the other one’s children away, then one of them becomes successful, and the other one that chased someone away falls sick… if that is your story, then what is your agenda, what are you trying to say with that? READ ALSO: Delta remains Polio-free since 2010 – Okowa Film in its original form when it was designed was a propaganda tool. It was not designed for entertainment; it was later on that it became entertainment. The people who understand how to use it still use it for propaganda till today. The vast majority of Nigerian youth want to go to America. They have never been to America, but they have seen pictures and videos of America. That is propaganda. They are being sold in this beautiful place. But if I have a different agenda, I can go to that same America and paint it as the most dangerous place for you to go to and you can get killed in the streets. So as Nigerian and African filmmakers, it boils down to our agenda. PT: But so many people believe the Chibok story was mere propaganda that it did not really happen. Kachi: I have heard it a couple of times. I was on a radio show one day and a guy called in and was talking about how it does not exist. I told him, “Chairman, let’s not talk much, I can organise an excursion for you. By the time you go and come back, maybe your narrative would change.” PT: It’s been five years since the incident. Were parts of the story lost with the passage of time? Kachi: How do you forget the facts surrounding your missing child that you haven’t found? You cannot forget it because it is a chapter that has not closed. The memory is always fresh. We have a woman (our lead character, Iyana) who is still washing the clothes of her missing daughter. I took her to the United Nations, and when we were at the UN, someone gave her two envelopes, one for her and one for her missing daughter. I was filming, and she opened hers and it had money and a letter of encouragement. She read it, repackaged it and put the two envelopes in her bag. I asked her to open the other one, but she said,”No, Rufkatu will come back and open it by herself.” I had no words to say to that, I had to stop filming. PT: Let’s talk about project ‘Light Up Chibok’. Kachi: That is our new baby. It is incredible. I am still in awe of how one simple project can do this. My teacher, Tim Reed bought me a book, ‘The Alchemist’, and in it, there is a passage that talks about how when you want something desperately, the universe aligns itself to ensure that you get it. Honestly, all I wanted was really to make a difference in the lives of these women. I remember that before I left Chibok, I told Iyana that I cannot bring back her daughter, but I would use the film to amplify her voice. I made her that promise. This film cannot just be for sympathy and it ends there, we have to go from empathy to action. I have done a lot of empathy films, but it must make a difference in a person’s life because the person has given you a bit of their soul. There were nights of crying on camera and confiding in us. It took us two days to break down those walls. We had meetings with them before they agreed to even talk because they feel exploited like their story has been exploited and it has been used. PT: So, did the original plot of the film change at any point? Kachi: Yes it did. The story started originally with her daughter, Rufkatu’s sister. I spent the entire first day filming her. We followed her to school, interviewed her and did a lot of filming. I just said we should go home and speak to the mum. The moment her mum began speaking, I had to cut the interview short and I told her we would come back. When we got back to the hotel, I told my guys we would start shooting from the beginning again that the woman is the real character. It was raw. PT: Did you embark on any intervention project on a personal level? Kachi: After we shot the film, I was trying to raise money to buy fertiliser for the women’s farms. We eventually did that before I went to Venice. We were able to buy 30 bags of fertiliser because she insisted that we couldn’t just buy for her. We shared three bags among ten women. It was in the process of trying to raise money for fertiliser that I called Damilola Ogunbiyi. She was the one who originally got me into doing VR, so when I showed her the film, she took off the headset and said we must do something. I told her about the plans for fertiliser, but she asked if they have power and I said no, that sometimes I call Iyana and I can’t reach her for two days, and she would later call me to tell me she went to pay to charge her phone in town. Damilola said we would provide them with portable solar kits. The latter comprises of a small solar generator with a solar panel, a standing fan, two bulbs, and you can charge your phone and listen to the radio on it. She said she would provide about 120 units. PT: Really? Kachi: I kept silent about it because I didn’t want to jinx it until one of her assistants called me and said they were ready to deliver the solar kits. That was it. Presently, 93 Chibok homes have been powered for the first time in about 10 years. Kids are able to read at night now. Ten youths, six boys, four girls were also trained on how to install and by the second day they were installing. PT: How do you feel? Kachi: I’m happy, and I am in awe of what one small action can lead to. I saw kids looking at the light as if it is something special. When I placed the solar generator in Iyana’s hands and I told her it was coming to Chibok, she said with the light her children would be able to read at night. She called me a few days ago that her daughters from Maiduguri came on holiday and that they are all enjoying the light, they can listen to the radio and everybody is happy. More things will happen. Fayemi urges ban on imported ‘Aso-Oke’ Author explores poor customer service across Nigeria in new book Jayne Augoye Jayne Augoye is an assistant editor and covers the entertainment and lifestyle beat for PREMIUM TIMES. She has a master's degree in Media and Communication from the Pan Atlantic University. Twitter: @jaynejones Biden reverses Trump’s travel ban on Nigeria, Yemen, Eritrea, others Despite COVID, Nigeria’s quarterly FDI reached two-year high in 2020 COVID-19: Nigeria records 1,386 new cases, 14 deaths EXCLUSIVE: Nigeria’s decade-long wheat production so woeful 98% is imported EXCLUSIVE: Osun commissioner, Oyetola’s aide test positive for COVID-19 Wike, unwilling to pay Rivers pensioners, pledges N500 million to Sokoto Three Borno local govts largely deserted after recent Boko Haram attacks - Lawmaker	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513015
__label__wiki	0.606074	0.606074	1st President of the United States: 1789 ‐ 1797 Eighth Annual Address to Congress Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: In recurring to the internal situation of our country since I had last the pleasure to address you, I find ample reason for a renewed expression of that gratitude to the Ruler of the Universe which a continued series of prosperity has so often and so justly called forth. The acts of the last session which required special arrangements have been as far as circumstances would admit carried into operation. Measures calculated to insure a continuance of the friendship of the Indians and to preserve peace along the extent of our interior frontier have been digested and adopted. In the framing of these care has been taken to guard on the one hand our advanced settlements from the predatory incursions of those unruly individuals who can not be restrained by their tribes, and on the other hand to protect the rights secured to the Indians by treaty - to draw them nearer to the civilized state and inspire them with correct conceptions of the power as well as justice of the Government. The meeting of the deputies from the Creek Nation at Colerain, in the State of Georgia, which had for a principal object the purchase of a parcel of their land by that State, broke up without its being accomplished, the nation having previous to their departure instructed them against making any sale. The occasion, however, has been improved to confirm by a new treaty with the Creeks their preexisting engagements with the United States, and to obtain their consent to the establishment of trading houses and military posts within their boundary, by means of which their friendship and the general peace may be more effectually secured. The period during the late session at which the appropriation was passed for carrying into effect the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation between the United States and His Brittanic Majesty necessarily procrastinated the reception of the posts stipulated to be delivered beyond the date assigned for that event. As soon, however, as the Governor-General of Canada could be addressed with propriety on the subject, arrangements were cordially and promptly concluded for their evacuation, and the United States took possession of the principal of them, comprehending Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, Michilimackinac, and Fort Miami, where such repairs and additions have been ordered to be made as appeared indispensable. The commissioners appointed on the part of the United States and of Great Britain to determine which is the river St. Croix mentioned in the treaty of peace of 1783, agreed in the choice of Egbert Benson, esq., of New York, for the 3rd commissioner. The whole met at St. Andrew's, in Passamaquoddy Bay, in the beginning of October, and directed surveys to be made of the rivers in dispute; but deeming it impracticable to have these surveys completed before the next year, they adjourned to meet at Boston in August, 1797, for the final decision of the question. Other commissioners appointed on the part of the United States, agreeably to the 7th article of the treaty with Great Britain, relative to captures and condemnation of vessels and other property, met the commissioners of His Britannic Majesty in London in August last, when John Trumbull, esq., was chosen by lot for the 5th commissioner. In October following the board were to proceed to business. As yet there has been no communication of commissioners on the part of Great Britain to unite with those who have been appointed on the part of the United States for carrying into effect the 6th article of the treaty. The treaty with Spain required that the commissioners for running the boundary line between the territory of the United States and His Catholic Majesty's provinces of East and West Florida should meet at the Natchez before the expiration of 6 months after the exchange of the ratifications, which was effected at Aranjuez on the 25th day of April [1796-04-25]; and the troops of His Catholic Majesty occupying any posts within the limits of the United States were within the same time period to be withdrawn. The commissioner of the United States therefore commenced his journey for the Natchez in September, and troops were ordered to occupy the posts from which the Spanish garrisons should be withdrawn. Information has been recently received of the appointment of a commissioner on the part of His Catholic Majesty for running the boundary line, but none of any appointment for the adjustment of the claims of our citizens whose vessels were captured by the armed vessels of Spain. In pursuance of the act of Congress passed in the last session for the protection and relief of American sea-men, agents were appointed, one to reside in Great Britain and the other in the West Indies. The effects of the agency in the West Indies are not yet fully ascertained, but those which have been communicated afford grounds to believe the measure will be beneficial. The agent destined to reside in Great Britain declining to accept the appointment, the business has consequently devolved on the minister of the United States in London, and will command his attention until a new agent shall be appointed. After many delays and disappointments arising out of the European war, the final arrangements for fulfilling the engagements made to the Dey and Regency of Algiers will in all present appearance be crowned with success, but under great, though inevitable, disadvantages in the pecuniary transactions occasioned by that war, which will render further provision necessary. The actual liberation of all our citizens who were prisoners in Algiers, while it gratifies every feeling of heart, is itself an earnest of a satisfactory termination of the whole negotiation. Measures are in operation for effecting treaties with the Regencies of Tunis and Tripoli. To an active external commerce the protection of a naval force is indispensable. This is manifest with regard to wars in which a State is itself a party. But besides this, it is in our own experience that the most sincere neutrality is not a sufficient guard against the depredations of nations at war. To secure respect to a neutral flag requires a naval force organized and ready to vindicate it from insult or aggression. This may even prevent the necessity of going to war by discouraging belligerent powers from committing such violations of the rights of the neutral party as may, first or last, leave no other option. From the best information I have been able to obtain it would seem as if our trade to the Mediterranean without a protecting force will always be insecure and our citizens exposed to the calamities from which numbers of them have but just been relieved. These considerations invite the United States to look to the means, and to set about the gradual creation of a navy. The increasing progress of their navigation promises them at no distant period the requisite supply of sea-men, and their means in other respects favor the undertaking. It is an encouragement, likewise, that their particular situation will give weight and influence to a moderate naval force in their hands. Will it not, then, be advisable to begin without delay to provide and lay up the materials for the building and equipping of ships of war, and to proceed in the work by degrees, in proportion as our resources shall render it practicable without inconvenience, so that a future war of Europe may not find our commerce in the same unprotected state in which it was found by the present? Congress have repeatedly, and not without success, directed their attention to the encouragement of manufactures. The object is of too much consequence not to insure a continuance of their efforts in every way which shall appear eligible. As a general rule, manufactures on public account are inexpedient; but where the state of things in a country leaves little hope that certain branches of manufacture will for a great length of time obtain, when these are of a nature essential to the furnishing and equipping of the public force in time of war, are not establishments for procuring them on public account to the extent of the ordinary demand for the public service recommended by strong considerations of national policy as an exception to the general rule? Ought our country to remain in such cases dependent on foreign supply, precarious because liable to be interrupted? If the necessary article should in this mode cost more in time of peace, will not the security and independence thence arising form an ample compensation? Establishments of this sort, commensurate only with the calls of the public service in time of peace, will in time of war easily be extended in proportion to the exigencies of the Government, and may even perhaps be made to yield a surplus for the supply of our citizens at large, so as to mitigate the privations from the interruption of their trade. If adopted, the plan ought to exclude all those branches which are already, or likely soon to be, established in the country, in order that they may be no danger of interference with pursuits of individual industry. It will not be doubted that with reference either to individual or national welfare agriculture is of primary importance. In proportion as nations advance in population and other circumstances of maturity this truth becomes more apparent, and renders the cultivation of the soil more and more an object of public patronage. Institutions for promoting it grow up, supported by the public purse; and to what object can it be dedicated with greater propriety? Among the means which have been employed to this end none have been attended with greater success than the establishment of boards (composed of proper characters) charged with collecting and diffusing information, and enabled by premiums and small pecuniary aids to encourage and assist a spirit of discovery and improvement. This species of establishment contributes doubly to the increase of improvement by stimulating to enterprise and experiment, and by drawing to a common center the results everywhere of individual skill and observation, and spreading them thence over the whole nation. Experience accordingly has shewn that they are very cheap instruments of immense national benefits. I have heretofore proposed to the consideration of Congress the expediency of establishing a national university and also a military academy. the desirableness of both these institutions has so constantly increased with every new view I have taken of the subject that I can not omit the opportunity of once for all recalling your attention to them. The assembly to which I address myself is too enlightened not to be fully sensible how much a flourishing state of the arts and sciences contributes to national prosperity and reputation. True it is that our country, much to its honor, contains many seminaries of learning highly repeatable and useful; but the funds upon which they rest are too narrow to command the ablest professors in the different departments of liberal knowledge for the institution contemplated, though they would be excellent auxiliaries. Amongst the motives to such an institution, the assimilation of the principles, opinions, and manners of our country-men by the common education of a portion of our youth from every quarter well deserves attention. The more homogenous our citizens can be made in these particulars the greater will be our prospect of permanent union; and a primary object of such a national institution should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic what species of knowledge can be equally important and what duty more pressing on its legislature than to patronize a plan for communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country? The institution of a military academy is also recommended by cogent reasons. However pacific the general policy of a nation may be, it ought never to be without an adequate stock of military knowledge for emergencies. The 1st would impair the energy of its character, and both would hazard its safety or expose it to greater evils when war could not be avoided; besides that, war might often not depend upon its own choice. In proportion as the observance of pacific maxims might exempt a nation from the necessity of practicing the rules of the military art ought to be its care in preserving and transmitting, by proper establishments, the knowledge of that art. Whatever argument may be drawn from particular examples superficially viewed, a thorough examination of the subject will evince that the art of war is at once comprehensive and complicated, that it demands much previous study, and that the possession of it in its most improved and perfect state is always of great moment to the security of a nation. This, therefore, ought to be a serious care of every government, and for this purpose an academy where a regular course of instruction is given is an obvious expedient which different nations have successfully employed. The compensation to the officers of the United States in various instances, and in none more than in respect to the most important stations, appear to call for legislative revision. The consequences of a defective provision are of serious import to the Government. If private wealth is to supply the defect of public retribution, it will greatly contract the sphere within which the selection of character for office is to be made, and will proportionally diminish the probability of a choice of men able as well as upright. Besides that, it should be repugnant to the vital principles of our Government virtually to exclude from public trusts talents and virtue unless accompanied by wealth. While in our external relations some serious inconveniences and embarrassments have been overcome and others lessened, it is with much pain and deep regret I mention that circumstances of a very unwelcome nature have lately occurred. Our trade has suffered and is suffering extensive injuries in the West Indies from the cruisers and agents of the French Republic, and communications have been received from its minister here which indicate the danger of a further disturbance of our commerce by its authority, and which are in other respects far from agreeable. It has been my constant, sincere, and earnest wish, in conformity with that of our nation, to maintain cordial harmony and a perfectly friendly understanding with that Republic. This wish remains unabated, and I shall persevere in the endeavor to fulfill it to the utmost extent of what shall be consistent with a just and indispensable regard to the rights and honor of our country; nor will I easily cease to cherish the expectation that a spirit of justice, candor, and friendship on the part of the Republic will eventually insure success. In pursuing this course, however, I can not forget what is due to the character of our Government and nation, or to a full and entire confidence in the good sense, patriotism, self-respect, and fortitude of my country-men. I reserve for a special message a more particular communication on this interesting subject. Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: I have directed an estimate of the appropriations necessary for the service of the ensuing year to be submitted from the proper Department, with a view of the public receipts and expenditures to the latest period to which an account can be prepared. It is with satisfaction I am able to inform you that the revenues of the United States continue in a state of progressive improvement. A reenforcement of the existing provisions for discharging our public debt was mentioned in my address at the opening of the last session. Some preliminary steps were taken toward it, the maturing of which will no doubt engage your zealous attention during the present. I will only add that it will afford me a heart-felt satisfaction to concur in such further measures as will ascertain to our country the prospect of a speedy extinguishment of the debt. Posterity may have cause to regret if from any motive intervals of tranquillity are left unimproved for accelerating this valuable end. Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives: My solicitude to see the militia of the United States placed on an efficient establishment has been so often and so ardently expressed that I shall but barely recall the subject to your view on the present occasion, at the same time that I shall submit to your inquiry whether our harbors are yet sufficiently secured. The situation in which I now stand for the last time, in the midst of the representatives of the people of the United States, naturally recalls the period when the administration of the present form of government commenced, and I can not omit the occasion to congratulate you and my country on the success of the experiment, nor to repeat my fervent supplications to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe and Sovereign Arbiter of Nations that His providential care may still be extended to the United States, that the virtue and happiness of the people may be preserved, and that the Government which they have instituted for the protection of their liberties may be perpetual. George Washington, Eighth Annual Address to Congress Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/200398 Spoken Addresses and Remarks State of the Union Addresses	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513016
__label__wiki	0.612749	0.612749	in PC Games, Sony Playstation 3, Video Games, Xbox 360 PES 2012 release date and one on one situation improvements by Jamie Pert August 4, 2011, 23:02 As football fans are eagerly awaiting the start of their respective seasons to begin, there is also one more date that some die-hard football fans may want to put in their calendars. They may even put a big fat red ring round it too as the Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 release date has been announced, and we can expect to see it in October this year. First off we need to apologise for bringing this news to your attention, fashionably late. The announcement was officially made on July 28, but it must have slipped under our football radar. Getting back to what we do best, we can announce that PES 2012 will be coming to a games console near you on October 14, says Konami. So far, the only versions that have actually been labelled with the fabled date is the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. PSP, PS2, and Wii versions are said to follow shortly after the initial release, but for the time being, Konami are keeping a closed lid on that. Konami have stated that the title is the “most ambitious and advanced football game ever,” and we can tell you that we have seen a preview of some of the one-on-one moves that can be achieved with simple analog and button presses, and are very much looking forward to trying them out. You can see the video at the end of this article. PES 2012 also holds the bragging rights to the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Super Cup. As they own the licence, this means that all referees will sport official UEFA merchandise and uniforms, but the real seal of approval will come when players test the new AI that is much talked about. “The additions we have made in terms of Teammate Control, Active AI and Off the Ball Control and elevate the level of play to new heights. No other game allows users so much control over their team, and PES 2012 ensures that the days of gaps in defence and shouting at teammates to make a run are long gone,” said John Murphy, European PES Team Leader. With the new improvements, can you see yourself continuing on with the PES series of football games that we now know and love, or will you be checking out FIFA 12 aswell? Who do you think will have the most true-to-life gameplay? FIFA 12KonamiPES 2012 Previous article Top 10 Stolen cars 2011: Find out if your car is at risk Next article Google+ for Android 1.0.5 – app updated with list of changes in Gadgets Mutewatch production begins: Subtle way to manage your day Google Doodle: Charlie Chaplins birthday Top 10 Stolen cars 2011: Find out if your car is at risk Google+ for Android 1.0.5 – app updated with list of changes	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513018
__label__cc	0.714331	0.285669	Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors to be completed by December 2021 Tuesday, 25 Aug 2020 Union Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal reviewed the progress of Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL). It is expected that Western Corridor connecting Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in Mumbai and Eastern Corridor starting from Sahnewal near Ludhiana (Punjab) to terminate at Dankuni in West Bengal will be completed by December 2021. Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) is one of the largest rail infrastructure projects spanning a total length of 3360 route km undertaken by the government of India. The overall cost of the project is pegged at Rs 81,459 crore. The Eastern and Western DFC excluding the Sonnnagar-Dankuni section is expected to be completed by the end of 2021. The Minister directed the DFFCIL management team to necessary steps to speed up the project to compensate the loss of time due to lockdown during COVID-19. It was also decided that monitoring of work of all contractors to be done; resolution of all issues, including coordination with the states to be done on a Mission mode. Moreover, innovative mechanisms to constantly monitor the weekly progress of the project would be evolved. DFCCIL has been set up as a special purpose vehicle to undertake planning, development, mobilisation of financial resources, construction, maintenance and operation of DFC. In the Phase-I the organisation is constructing the Western DFC (1,504 route km) and Eastern DFC (1,856 route km) spanning a total length of 3,360 route km.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513020
__label__wiki	0.813225	0.813225	FIND YOUR MP MPs & MLAs Legislatures Session Track Parliament Diary Parliament Committees Bills & Acts Bills Parliament Acts Parliament Bills States Acts States Annual Policy Reviews Monthly Policy Reviews President Address About the LAMP Fellowship Life at LAMP The PRS Blog Anoop Ramakrishnan Rajasthan Government’s Response to COVID-19 (till April 26) Subscribe to the PRS Blog States and State Legislatures Anoop Ramakrishnan - April 26, 2020 Comments As of April 26, Rajasthan has 2,083 confirmed cases of COVID-19 (fifth highest in the country), of which 493 have recovered and 33 have died. On March 18, the Rajasthan government had declared a state-wide curfew till March 31, to check the spread of the disease. A nation-wide lockdown has also been in place since March 25 and is currently, extended up to May 3. The state has announced several policy decisions to prevent the spread of the virus and provide relief for those affected by it. This blog summarises the key policy measures taken by the Government of Rajasthan in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Early measures for containment Between late January and early February, Rajasthan Government’s measures were aimed towards identification, screening and testing, and constant monitoring of passenger arrivals from China. Instructions were also issued to district health officials for various prevention, treatment, & control related activities, such as (i) mandatory 28-day home isolation for all travellers from China, (ii) running awareness campaigns, and (iii) ensuring adequate supplies of Personal Protection Equipments (PPEs). Some of the other measures, taken prior to the state-wide lockdown, are summarised below: Administrative measures The government announced the formation of Rapid Response Teams (RRTs), at the medical college-level and at district-level on March 3 and 5, respectively. The District Collector was appointed as the Nodal Officer for all COVID-19 containment activities. Control Rooms were to be opened at all Sub-divisional offices. The concerned officers were also directed to strengthen information dissemination mechanisms and tackle the menace of fake news. Directives were issued on March 11 to rural health workers/officials to report for duty on Gazetted holidays. Further, government departments were shut down between March 22 and March 31. Only essential departments such as Health Services were allowed to function on a rotation basis at 50% capacity and special / emergency leaves were permitted. Travel and Movement Air travellers were to undergo 14-day home isolation and were also required to provide an undertaking for the same. Besides, those violating the mandated isolation/quarantine were liable to be punished under Section. 188 of the Indian Penal Code. Penalties are imposed under this section on persons for the willful violation of orders that have been duly passed by a public servant. All institutions and establishments, such as (i) educational institutions, theatres, and gyms, (ii) anganwadis, (iii) bars, discos, libraries, restaurants etc, (iv) museums and tourist places, were directed to be shut down till March 31. The daily Jan Sunwai at the Chief Minister’s residence was cancelled until further notice. Various government offices were directed to shut down and exams of schools and colleges were postponed. On March 24, the government issued a state-wide ban on the movement of private vehicles till March 31. Advisories regarding prevention and control measures were issued to: (i) District Collectors, regarding sample collection and transportation, hotels, and preparedness of hospitals, (ii) Police department, to stop using breath analysers, (iii) Private hospitals, regarding preparedness and monitoring activities, and (iv) Temple trusts, to disinfect their premises with chemicals. The government issued Standard Operating Procedures for conducting mock drills in emergency response handling of COVID-19 cases. Training and capacity building measures were also initiated for (i) Railways, Army personnel etc and (ii) ASHA workers, through video conferencing. A model micro-plan for containing local transmission of COVID was released. Key features of the plan include: (i) identification and mapping of affected areas, (ii) activities for prevention control, surveillance, and contact tracing, (iii) human resource management, including roles and responsibilities, (iv) various infrastructural and logistical support, such as hospitals, labs etc, and (v) communication and data management. Resource Management: Private hospitals and medical colleges were instructed to reserve 25 % of beds for COVID-19 patients. They were also instructed to utilise faculty from the departments of Preventive and Social Medicine to conduct health education and awareness activities. Over 6000 Students of nursing schools were employed in assisting the health department to conduct screening activities being conducted at public places, railways stations, bus stands etc. Further, the government issued guidelines to ensure the rational use of PPEs. Welfare Measures The government announced financial assistance, in the form of encouragement grants, to health professionals engaged in treating COVID-19 patients. Steps were also taken by the government to ensure speedy disbursal of pensions for February and March. The government also initiated the replacement of the biometric authentication with an OTP process for distribution of ration via the Public Distribution System (PDS). During the lockdown State-wide curfew announced on March 18 has been followed by a nation-wide lockdown between March 25 and May 3. However, certain relaxations have been recommended by the state government from April 21 onwards. Some of the key measures undertaken during the lockdown period are: Advisory groups and task forces were set up on – (i) COVID-19 prevention, (ii) Health and Economy, and (iii) Higher education. These groups will provide advice on the way forward for (i) prevention and containment activities, (ii) post-lockdown strategies and strategies to revive the economy, and (iii) to address the challenges facing the higher education sector respectively. Services of retiring medical and paramedical professionals retiring between March and August have been extended till September 2020. Essential Goods and Services A Drug Supply Control Room was set up at the Rajasthan Pharmacy Council. This is to ensure uninterrupted supply of medicines during the lockdown and will also assist in facilitating home delivery of medicines. The government permitted Fair Price Shops to sell products such as masalas, sanitisers, and hygiene products, in addition to food grains. Village service cooperatives were declared as secondary markets to facilitate farmers to sell their produce near their own fields/villages during the lockdown. A Whatsapp helpline was also set up for complaints regarding hoarding, black marketing, and overpricing. Once lockdown was in place, the government issued instructions to identify, screen, and categorise people from other states who have travelled to Rajasthan. They were to be categorised into: (i) people displaying symptoms to be put in isolation wards, (ii) people over 60 years of age with symptoms and co-morbidities to be put in quarantine centres, and (iii) asymptomatic people to be home quarantined. On March 28, the government announced the availability of buses to transport people during the lockdown. Further, stranded students in Kota were allowed to return to their respective states. On April 2, a portal and a helpline were launched to help stranded foreign tourists and NRIs. On April 11, an e-pass facility was launched for movement of people and vehicles. To identify COVID-19 patients, district officials were instructed to monitor people with ARI/URI/Pneumonia or other breathing difficulties coming into hospital OPDs. Pharmacists were also instructed to not issue medicines for cold/cough without prescriptions. A mobile app – Raj COVID Info – was developed by the government for tracking of quarantined people. Quarantined persons are required to send their selfie clicks at regular intervals, failing which a notification would be sent by the app. The app also provides a lot of information on COVID-19, such as the number of cases, and press releases by the government. Due to the lockdown, people had restricted access to hospitals and treatment. Thus, instructions were issued to utilise Mobile Medical Vans for treatment/screening and also as mobile OPDs. On April 20, a detailed action plan for prevention and control of COVID-19 was released. The report recommended: (i) preparation of a containment plan, (ii) formation of RRTs, (iii) testing protocols, (iv) setting up of control room and helpline, (v) designated quarantine centres and COVID-19 hospitals, (vi) roles and responsibilities, and (vii) other logistics. The government issued instructions to make medicines available free of cost to senior citizens and other patients with chronic illnesses through the Chief Minister’s Free Medicine Scheme. Rs 60 crore was allotted to Panchayati Raj Institutions to purchase PPEs and for other prevention activities. A one-time cash transfer of Rs 1000 to over 15 lakh construction workers was announced. Similar cash transfer of Rs 1000 was announced for poor people who were deprived of livelihood during the lockdown, particularly those people with no social security benefits. Eligible families would be selected through the Aadhaar database. Further, an additional cash transfer of Rs 1500 to needy eligible families from different categories was announced. The state also announced an aid of Rs 50 lakh to the families of frontline workers who lose their lives due to COVID-19. To maintain social distancing, the government will conduct a door-to-door distribution of ration to select beneficiaries in rural areas of the state. The government also announced the distribution of free wheat for April, May, and June, under the National Food Security Act, 2013. Ration will also be distributed to stranded migrant families from Pakistan, living in the state. The government announced free tractor & farming equipment on rent in tie-up with farming equipment manufacturers to assist economically weak small & marginal farmers. Other Measures Education: Project SMILE was launched to connect students and teachers online during the lockdown. Study material would be sent through specially formed Whatsapp groups. For each subject, 30-40 minute content videos have been prepared by the Education Department. Industry: On April 18, new guidelines were issued for industries and enterprises to resume operations from April 20 onwards. Industries located in rural areas or export units / SEZs in municipal areas where accommodation facilities for workers are present, are allowed to function. Factories have been permitted to increase the working hours from 8 hours to 12 hours per day, to reduce the requirement of workers in factories. This exemption has been allowed for the next three months for factories operating at 60% to 65% of manpower capacity. For more information on the spread of COVID-19 and the central and state government response to the pandemic, please see here. Examining urban local governance in India through the case of Bengaluru Changes in Agricultural Marketing laws across states Assam Government’s Response to COVID-19 Gujarat Government’s Response to COVID-19 Telangana Government’s Response to COVID-19 Prachi Kaur and Shruti Gupta - December 24, 2020 Comments Recently, the Karnataka legislature passed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Bill, 2020. BBMP is the municipal corporation of the Greater Bengaluru metropolitan area. The BBMP Act, 2020 seeks to improve decentralisation, ensure public participation, and address certain administrative and structural concerns in Bengaluru. In this blog, we discuss some common issues in urban local governance in India, in the context of Bengaluru’s municipal administration. The Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992 provided for the establishment of urban local bodies (ULBs) (including municipal corporations) as institutions of local self-government. It also empowered state governments to devolve certain functions, authority, and power to collect revenue to these bodies, and made periodic elections for them compulsory. Urban governance is part of the state list under the Constitution. Thus, the administrative framework and regulation of ULBs varies across states. However, experts have highlighted that ULBs across India face similar challenges. For instance, ULBs across the country lack autonomy in city management and several city-level functions are managed by parastatals (managed by and accountable to the state). Several taxation powers have also not been devolved to these bodies, leading to stressed municipal finances. These challenges have led to poor service delivery in cities and also created administrative and governance challenges at the municipal level. BBMP was established under the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, 1976 (KMC Act). The BBMP Act, 2020 replaces provisions of the KMC Act, 1976 in its application to Bengaluru. It adds a new level of zonal committees to the existing three-tier municipal structure in the city, and also gives the Corporation some more taxation powers. Certain common issues in urban local governance in India, with provisions related to them in the BBMP Act, 2020 are given below. Functional overlap with parastatals for key functions The Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992 empowered states to devolve the responsibility of 18 functions including urban planning, regulation of land use, water supply, and slum upgradation to ULBs. However, in most Indian cities including Bengaluru, a majority of these functions are carried out by parastatals. For example, in Bengaluru, the Bengaluru Development Authority is responsible for land regulation and the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board is responsible for slum rehabilitation. The BBMP Act, 2020 provides the Corporation with the power and responsibility to prepare and implement schemes for the 18 functions provided for in the Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992. However, it does not provide clarity if new bodies at the municipal level will be created, or the existing parastatals will continue to perform these functions and if so, whether their accountability will shift from the state to the municipal corporation. This could create a two-fold challenge in administration. First, if there are multiple agencies performing similar functions, it could lead to a functional overlap, ambiguity, and wastage of resources. Second, and more importantly, the presence of parastatals that are managed by and accountable to the state government leads to an erosion of the ULB’s autonomy. Several experts have highlighted that this lack of autonomy faced by municipal corporations in most Indian cities leads to a challenge in governance, effective service delivery, and development of urban areas. An Expert Committee on Urban Infrastructure (2011) had recommended that activity mapping should be done for the 18 functions. Under this, functions in the exclusive domain of municipalities and those which need to be shared with the state and the central government must be specified. Experts have also recommended that the municipality should be responsible for providing civic amenities in its jurisdiction and if a parastatal exercises a civic function, it should be accountable to the municipality. Stressed municipal finances Indian ULBs are amongst the weakest in the world in terms of fiscal autonomy and have limited effective devolution of revenue. They also have limited capacity to raise resources through their own sources of revenue such as property tax. Municipal revenue in India accounts for only one percent of the GDP (2017-18). This leads to a dependence on transfers by the state and central government. ULBs in states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and Haryana are in poor financial condition. This has been attributed to limited powers to raise revenue and levy taxes, and problems in the management of existing resources. For instance, the finances of Bihar’s ULBs were assessed to be poor because of: (i) delays in release of grants, (ii) inadequate devolution of funds, and (iii) delays in revision of tax rates and assessments of landholdings. In comparison, Karnataka ranks high among Indian states in key indicators for fiscal capacity like collection of property taxes, grants from Central Finance Commissions, and state government transfers. The BBMP Act, 2020 further increases the taxation powers of the Corporation, by allowing it to impose taxes on professions and entertainment. Experts have recommended that the central government and the respective state government should provide additional funds and facilitate additional funding mechanisms for ULBs to strengthen their finances. The revenue of ULBs can be augmented through measures including assignment of greater powers of taxation to the ULBs by the state government, reforms in land and property-based taxes (such as the use of technology to cover more properties), and issuing of municipal bonds (debt instruments issued by ULBs to finance development projects). Powers of elected municipal officials The executive power with state-appointed municipal Commissioners and elected municipal officers differs across states. States like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, and cities like Chennai and Hyderabad vest the executive power in the Commissioner. In contrast, the executive power of the Corporation is exercised by a Mayor-in council (consisting of the Mayor and up to 10 elected members of the Corporation) in Kolkata and Madhya Pradesh. This is unlike large metropolitan cities in other countries like New York and London, where elected Mayors are designated as executive heads. Experts have noted that charging Commissioners with executive power diluted the role of the Mayor and violated the spirit of self-governance. Under the BBMP Act, 2020, both the elected Mayor and the state-appointed Chief Commissioner exercise several executive functions. The Mayor is responsible for approving contracts and preparing the budget estimate for the Corporation. He is also required to discharge all functions assigned to him by the Corporation. On the other hand, executive functions of the Chief Commissioner include: (i) selling or leasing properties owned by the Corporation, and (ii) regulating and issuing instructions regarding public streets. The Expert Committee on Urban Infrastructure (2011) has recommended that the Commissioner should act as a city manager and should be recruited through a transparent search-cum-selection process led by the Mayor. A Model Municipal law, released by the Urban Development Ministry in 2003, provided that the executive power should be exercised by an Empowered Standing Committee consisting of the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and seven elected councillors. Management of staff and human resources Experts have noted that municipal administration in India suffers from staffing issues which leads to a failure in delivering basic urban services. These include overstaffing of untrained manpower, shortage of qualified technical staff and managerial supervisors, and unwillingness to innovate in methods for service delivery. The BBMP Act, 2020 provides that the Corporation may make bye-laws for the due performance of duties by its employees. However, it does not mention other aspects of human resource management such as recruitment and promotion. A CAG report (2020) looking at the implementation of the Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992 in Karnataka has observed that the power to assess municipal staff requirements, recruiting such staff, and determining their pay, transfer and promotion vests with the state government. This is in contrast with the recommendations of several experts who have suggested that municipalities should appoint their personnel to ensure accountability, adequate recruitment, and proper management of staff. Other states including Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu also allow the state governments to regulate recruitment and staffing for ULBs. In cities like Mumbai, and Coimbatore, and some states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, while the recruitment process is conducted by the respective municipal corporations, the final sanction for hiring staff lies with the state government. Odisha Government’s Response to COVID-19 Anti-Conversion Legislation: Comparison of the UP Ordinances with other state laws Anoop Ramakrishnan - December 17, 2020 Comments This blog has been updated on Jan 19, 2021 to also cover the Madhya Pradesh Ordinance which was promulgated earlier in the month. The comparison table has also been revised accordingly. On November 27, 2020, the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020 was promulgated by the state government. This was followed by the Madhya Pradesh (MP) government promulgating the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Ordinance, 2020, in January 2021. These Ordinances seek to regulate religious conversions and prohibit certain types of religious conversions (including through marriages). The MP Ordinance replaces the MP Dharma Swatantra Adhiniyam, 1968, which previously regulated religious conversions in the state. Few other states, including Haryana and Karnataka, are also planning to introduce a similar law. This blog post looks at existing anti-conversion laws in the country and compares the latest UP and MP Ordinances with these laws. Anti-conversion laws in India The Constitution guarantees the freedom to profess, propagate, and practise religion, and allows all religious sections to manage their own affairs in matters of religion; subject to public order, morality, and health. To date, there has been no central legislation restricting or regulating religious conversions. Further, in 2015, the Union Law Ministry stated that Parliament does not have the legislative competence to pass anti-conversion legislation. However, it is to be noted that, since 1954, on multiple occasions, Private Member Bills have been introduced in (but never approved by) the Parliament, to regulate religious conversions. Over the years, several states have enacted ‘Freedom of Religion’ legislation to restrict religious conversions carried out by force, fraud, or inducements. These are: (i) Odisha (1967), (ii) Madhya Pradesh (1968), (iii) Arunachal Pradesh (1978), (iv) Chhattisgarh (2000 and 2006), (v) Gujarat (2003), (vi) Himachal Pradesh (2006 and 2019), (vii) Jharkhand (2017), and (viii) Uttarakhand (2018). Additionally, the Himachal Pradesh (2019) and Uttarakhand legislations also declare a marriage to be void if it was done for the sole purpose of unlawful conversion, or vice-versa. Further, the states of Tamil Nadu (2002) and Rajasthan (2006 and 2008) had also passed similar legislation. However, the Tamil Nadu legislation was repealed in 2006 (after protests by Christian minorities), while in case of Rajasthan, the bills did not receive the Governor’s and President’s assent respectively. Please see Table 2 for a comparison of anti-conversion laws across the country. In November 2019, citing rising incidents of forced/fraudulent religious conversions, the Uttar Pradesh Law Commission recommended enacting a new law to regulate religious conversions. This led the state government to promulgate the recent Ordinance in 2020. Following UP, the MP government also decided to promulgate an Ordinance in January 2021 to regulate religious conversions. We discuss key features of these ordinances below. What do the UP and MP Ordinances do? The MP and UP Ordinances define conversion as renouncing one’s existing religion and adopting another religion. However, both Ordinances exclude re-conversion to immediate previous religion (in UP), and parental religion (in MP) from this definition. Parental religion is the religion to which the individual’s father belonged to, at the time of the individual’s birth. These Ordinances prescribe the procedure for individuals seeking to undergo conversions (in the states of UP and MP) and declare all other forms of conversion (that violate the prescribed procedures) illegal. Procedure for conversion: Both the Ordinances require: (i) persons wishing to convert to a different religion, and (ii) persons supervising the conversion (religious convertors in UP, and religious priests or persons organising a conversion in MP) to submit an advance declaration of the proposed religious conversion to the District Magistrate (DM). In both states, the individuals seeking to undergo conversion are required to give advance notice of 60 days to the DM. However, in UP, the religious convertors are required to notify one month in advance, whereas in MP, the priests or organisers are also required to notify 60 days in advance. Upon receiving the declarations, the DMs in UP are further required to conduct a police enquiry into the intention, purpose, and cause of the proposed conversion. No such requirement exists in the MP Ordinance, although it mandates the DM’s sanction as a prerequisite for any court to take cognisance of an offence caused by violation of these procedures. The UP Ordinance also lays down a post-conversion procedure. Post-conversion, within 60 days from the date of conversion, the converted individual is required to submit a declaration (with various personal details) to the DM. The DM will publicly exhibit a copy of the declaration (till the conversion is confirmed) and record any objections to the conversion. The converted individual must then appear before the DM to establish his/her identity, within 21 days of sending the declaration, and confirm the contents of the declaration. Both the Ordinances also prescribe varying punishments for violation of any procedure prescribed by them, as specified in Table 2. Prohibition on conversions: Both, the UP and MP Ordinances prohibit conversion of religion through means, such as: (i) force, misrepresentation, undue influence, and allurement, or (ii) fraud, or (iii) marriage. They also prohibit a person from abetting, convincing, and conspiring to such conversions. Further, the Ordinances assign the burden of proof of the lawfulness of religious conversion to: (i) the persons causing or facilitating such conversions, in UP, and (ii) the person accused of causing unlawful conversion, in MP. Complaints against unlawful conversions: Both Ordinances allow for police complaints, against unlawful religious conversions, to be registered by: (i) the victim of such conversion, (ii) his/her parents or siblings, or (iii) any other person related to them by blood, and marriage or adoption. The MP Ordinance additionally permits persons related by guardianship or custodianship to also register a complaint, provided they take the leave of the court. Further, the MP Ordinance assigns the power to investigate such complaints to police officers of the rank of Sub-Inspector and above. Marriages involving religious conversion: As per the UP Ordinance, a marriage is liable to be declared null and void, if: (i) it was done for the sole purpose of unlawful conversion, or vice-versa, and (ii) the religious conversion was not done as per the procedure specified in the Ordinance. Similarly, the MP Ordinance declares a marriage null and void, if: (i) it was done with an intent to convert a person, and (ii) the conversion took place through any of the prohibited means specified under the Ordinance. Further, the MP Ordinance explicitly provides for punishment (as specified in Table 2) for the concealment of religion for the purpose of marriage. Right to inheritance and maintenance: The MP Ordinance additionally provides certain safeguards for women and children. It considers children born out of a marriage involving unlawful religious conversion as legitimate and provides for them to have the right to property of only the father (as per the law governing the inheritance of the father). Further, the Ordinance provides for maintenance to be given to: (i) a woman whose marriage is deemed unlawful under the Ordinance, and (ii) her children born out of such a marriage. Punishment for unlawful conversions: Both the MP and UP Ordinances provide for punishment for causing or facilitating unlawful religious conversion, as specified in Table 1. Also, all offences under both Ordinances are cognisable and non-bailable. Additionally, under the UP Ordinance, the accused will be liable to pay compensation of up to five lakh rupees to the victim of conversion and repeat offences will attract double the punishment specified for the respective offence. However, under the MP Ordinance, each repeat offence will attract punishment of a fine, and imprisonment between five and 10 years. Further, it provides for the Session Court to try an accused person, at the same trial, for: (i) an offence under this Ordinance, and (ii) also for other offences he has been charged with, under the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973. Table 1: Punishments prescribed under the UP and MP Ordinances for offences by individuals for causing/facilitating the conversion Mass conversion (conversion of two or more persons at the same time) Term of imprisonment Fine Amount Rs 50,000 or more Rs 1,00,000 or more Conversion of a minor, woman, or person belonging to SC or ST Any other conversion If any of the above three offences are committed by an organisation, under the UP Ordinance, the registration of the organisation is liable to be cancelled and grants or financial aid from the state government is liable to be discontinued. Under the MP Ordinance, only the registration of such organisations is liable to be cancelled. Definition of MSMEs Maharashtra Government’s Response to COVID-19 (till April 20, 2020) Does changing MP salaries and MPLAD entitlements raise resources to fight COVID-19? The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019: How it differs from the draft Bill The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019: All you need to know sexy teenage brunette gets pussy fingered blowjob battle - blowjob to the blonde in stockings greek wife with a very nice ass being taken hard realitykings - tranny surprise - yago ribeiro yasmim rib. amateur extreme bondage sex with a rope Opportunities at PRS Copyright © 2021 prsindia.org All Rights Reserved. teen porn sikiş izle eskişehir escort bodrum escort bayan Eskişehir Escort Escort Eskişehir Kuzen Seks Hikayesi Amatör Porno Bodrum Escort olgun porno İzmit merkez escort mersin escort kocaeli escort eskişehir escort Stepmom licks sad teen in bedroom Женщина нежно лижет анус приятного мужика Girls equipped with big asses ready to get fucked hard Cute Sunny Redhead teeny taking fat cock Sexy teen vuole un hard martellante Super Hot Big Boobs MILF Has Hot Sex izmir escort baymavi giris escort bayan escort beylikduzu cratosslot hd xxx videos kocaeli escort Bakırköy Escort Bakırköy Masaj Taksim Spa izmir escort istanbul escort pendik escort Ataşehir Escort Seks Hikayesi Ataköy Escort Escort Ataköy Ataköy Bayan Escort Ataköy Bayan Ataköy Escort Hatun Escort Bayan Ataköy Yeni Escort Endüstriyel Mutfak Havalandirma escort denizli izmir escort bayan escort izmir escort izmir escort mersin altyazılı porno aydin escort hatay escort sivas escort sex stories kahramanmaraş escort beylikdüzü escort avcılar escort şirinevler escort esenyurt escort seks hikayesi elexbet vdcasino asyabahis giris escort izmir sekabet edirne escort seks hikayeleri Rug munch and fine sex Seks hikayesi sikiş hikayeleri Taksim Spa Escort Bayan	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513022
__label__wiki	0.925934	0.925934	One of the largest providers of public services in the UK Interserve has unveiled an emergency rescue deal which will see its debt slashed by more than £300m. Its deleveraging plan is expected to reduce Interserve’s debt from £600m to £375m, achieved by issuing new shares – but will need approval from shareholders who face seeing their current holdings wiped out. CEO Debbie White called it a “significant step forward” as the provider tries to avoid a Carillion-style collapse through restructuring. Interserve sells services such as healthcare, construction and probation and employs 45,000 people in the UK. Now lenders have agreed a deal that will see shareholders left with just 2.75% of the company by issuing £480m worth of new shares to be swapped with creditors for debt. Interserve said its objective remains to secure a fully consensual deal with shareholders, but is also actively preparing alternative plans to ensure the transaction can be implemented if approval is not given. The rescue deal will see Interserve keep its most profitable division, its RMD Kwikform construction business, after the firm had reportedly considered offloading the unit to lenders to raise money. Interserve, who receives 70% of its turnover from government contracts, has seen its market value plummet by £483m since 2017 to just £17m. But the firm said its financial woes are not as extensive as those of fellow outsourcer Carillion, which collapsed in early 2018. White said: “Agreeing the key commercial terms of the deleveraging plan with our lenders, bonding providers and pension trustee is a significant step forward in our plans to strengthen the balance sheet. “Its successful implementation is critical to the Interserve Group's future and all of its stakeholders.” White added that the plan, alongside a transformation programme called ‘fit for growth’, will place Interserve in a strong position to be competitive in the marketplace and provide a secure future for its suppliers, customers and employees. Interserve said it expects to launch the full deleveraging plan in the next few weeks, subject to approval from its shareholders.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513024
__label__wiki	0.897587	0.897587	Tillerson slams North Korea missile test but still seeks talks Aug 28, 2017 12:05 AM PHT WASHINGTON, USA – US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared Sunday, August 27, that North Korea's latest missile test was a "provocative act" but said he still hopes to persuade Pyongyang to come to the negotiating table. Earlier this month, Washington's top diplomat suggested a diplomatic opening might be close after North Korea reacted to a new round of United Nations sanctions with what he termed "some level of restraint." And on Tuesday, August 22, US President Donald Trump seized upon the lack of immediate North Korean missile tests as evidence that the country's leader Kim Jong-Un "is starting to respect us." But on Saturday, August 26, true to recent form, North Korea test-fired 3 short-range ballistic missiles, with Kim apparently thumbing his nose at calls for him to send Washington a signal that he is serious about nuclear disarmament. "The firing of any ballistic missile is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions," Tillerson told Fox News Sunday. "We do view it as a provocative act, a provocative act against the United States and our allies." But he added, "We continue to want the Kim regime to understand [there] is a different path that he can choose." Asked whether he and Trump had been too quick to imagine that Kim might be ready to show restraint, Tillerson said: "I don't know that we are wrong ... I think it's going to take some time to tell." "Clearly they are still messaging us as well that they are not prepared to completely back away from their position," he said. "Having said that, we are going to continue our peaceful pressure campaign as I have described it," Tillerson said, "working with allies, working with China as well, to see if we can bring the regime in Pyongyang to the negotiating table, begin a dialogue on a different future for the Korean peninsula and for North Korea." – Rappler.com	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513029
__label__wiki	0.678936	0.678936	Chapter 26: Buber and Judaism Martin Buber: The Life of Dialogue by Maurice S. Friedman Ludwig Lewisohn, writing in 1935, said of Martin Buber: Dr. Buber is the most distinguished and influential of living Jewish thinkers.... We are all his pupils. The contemporary reintegration of modern Western Jewish writers, thinkers, scientists, with their people, is unthinkable without the work and voice of Martin Buber. (Ludwig Lewisohn, Rebirth, A Book of Modern Jewish Thought [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1935], p. 87; cf. p. 88 f. and Ludwig Lewisohn, Cities and Men [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1927], pp. 200-212.) No Jewish thinker has had a greater cultural, intellectual, and religious influence than has Buber in the last four decades. He is of significance for Judaism not only as religious philosopher, translator of the Bible, and translator and re-creator of Hasidic legends and thought, but also as a religious personality who has provided leadership of a rare quality during the time of his people’s greatest trial and suffering since the beginning of the diaspora. Since the death of Hermann Cohen, Buber has been generally acknowledged as the representative figure of Western European Jewry. He wielded a tremendous influence not only upon the youth won over to Zionism but also upon the Liberals, and even, despite his non-adherence to the Jewish Law, upon the Orthodox. ‘It was Buber,’ writes Alfred Werner, ‘to whom I (like thousands of Central European men and women devoid of any Jewish background) owe my initiation into the realm of Jewish culture.’ (Franz Rosenzweig, ‘Martin Buber,’ Jüdisches Lexikon [Berlin: Jüdischer Verlag, 1927], Vol. I col. 1190 f. Cf. Franz Rosenzweig, Kleinere Schriften [Berlin: Schocken Verlag, 1917], p. 106. Alfred Werner, ‘Buber at Seventy,’ Congress Weekly, Vol. XV [February 13,1948], p. 10; Liptzin, Germany’s Stepchildren, op. cit., p. 263 f.) Today, in the third generation of his writing, speaking, and teaching, Martin Buber is without question not only the representative figure of Western European Jewry but of world Jewry as well. No one has done more than he to bring about a rebirth of Judaism, and his works promise to affect generations of thinking religious Jews of the future. The steady spread of his influence from Europe to England and from Israel to America makes it clear that this is no temporary phenomenon but a deep-seated force in the life and destiny of the Jewish people. In his early twenties Buber associated himself with the great Zionist leader, Theodore Herzl, and in 1901 he became the editor of the Zionist journal, Der Welt. He broke shortly with Herzl, however, because of the latter’s purely political Zionism, and he became the leader of those Zionists (including Chaim Weizmann) who demanded that the movement be founded on the basis of a Jewish cultural renaissance. In 1902 this group founded the Jüdscher Verlag, which later became the publishing house for the most important Zionist literature, and in 1916 Buber founded the journal Der Jude, which became the central point for the higher spiritual strivings of the Zionist movement. As a result of its high level, moreover, Der Jude became the leading organ of German-speaking Jewry. (Robert Weltsch, ‘Martin Buber,’ Jüdische Lexikon, op. cit., Vol. I, col. 1191; Adolf Böhm, Die zionistische Bewegung bis zum Ende des Weltkrieges, 2nd enlarged edition [Tel Aviv: Hozaah Ivrith Co., 1935], Vol. I, pp. 203 f., 297 ff., 535.) Although Buber gave up active leadership in the Zionist movement in favour of his broader religious, philosophical, and social interests, he continued to exert a strong influence on the Zionist movement through his speeches and writings. Through his emphasis on the building of a real Jewish community, he became a co-creator of the idea of the Chaluzim, or pioneers. For the furtherance of this goal, his circle joined forces in 1919 with the Palestinian ‘Hapoel Hazair,’ led by A. D. Gordon. Adolf Böhm lists Buber, Nathan Birnbaum, and A. D. Gordon as the three most influential leaders of Zionism after Herzl. The new perspective which Buber gave to Zionism was not understood outside of a narrow circle, and it evoked the most intense enmity of all the nationalistic-political Zionists. Yet, according to Böhm, whoever was able to follow Buber was freed by his point of view from torturing doubts and inspired to more intensive work. In the whole sphere of Zionist activity, even that of political organization, it was Buber’s disciples who accomplished what was essential. (Böhm, Die zionistische Bewegung, Vol. I, pp. 521-540. 259) Buber’s attitude toward Zionism is integrally related to his conviction that in the work of redemption Israel is called on to play the special part of beginning the kingdom of God through itself becoming a holy people. This election is not an occasion for particularist pride but a commission which must be carried out in all humility. It is not to be understood as an objective fact or a subjective feeling but as an uncompleted dialogical reality, the awareness of an address from God. In it the Biblical covenant to make real the kingship of God through partnership with the land is combined with the Deutero-Isaianic concept of the ‘servant’ under whose leadership Israel will initiate God’s kingdom. (Israel and Palastine, op. cit., pp. 34 f., 49 ff.,54; The Prophetic Faith, p. 232 ff.) Israel’s special vocation is not just another nationalism which makes the nation an end in itself. The people need the land and freedom to organize their own life in order to realize the goal of community. But the state as such is at best only a means to the goal of Zion, and it may even be an obstacle to it if the true nature of Zion as commission and task is not held uppermost. (Israel and the World, ‘On National Education,’ p. 159; ‘Der Chaluz und seine Welt,’ op. cit., p. 90 ff.; Israel and Palestine, pp. 70 f., 74, 76 f., 117 ff., 121, 125, 144, 147 f.; Two Letters to Gandhi, op. cit., p. 10 f.) Zion means a destiny of mutual perfecting. It is not a calculation but a command; not an idea but a hidden figure waiting to be revealed. Israel would lose its own self if it replaced Palestine by another land and it would lose its own self if it replaced Zion by Palestine. (Israel and Palistine, p. 142.) If Israel reduces Zionism to ‘a Jewish community in Palestine’ or tries to build a small nation just like other small nations, it will end by attaining neither. (Ibid., p. 144 f.) One of the means by which Buber exerted the greatest influence on the Zionist movement was through his discovery and re-creation of Hasidism. According to Robert Weltsch, ‘Buber’s discovery of Hasidism was epochal for the West: Buber made his thesis believable that no renewal of Judaism would be possible which did not bear in itself elements of Hasidism.’ (Jüdisches Lexikon, Vol. I, col. 1191 [my translation]). Through this discovery Buber opened up important new aspects of Jewish experience to the Jews of Western Europe and at the same time helped bridge the growing gap between them and the Jews of Eastern Europe. Buber proved conclusively that the despised ‘poor relations’ in the East possessed inner treasures of great power and depth which it was impossible any longer to ignore.... Thus he came to embody the ultimate synthesis of the two cultural traditions and to become its living symbol as well as its finest flower. (Wolf, ‘Martin Buber and German Jewry,’ op. cit., p. 348.) In his earlier writings Buber regarded Hasidism as the real, though subterranean Judaism, as opposed to official Rabbinism which was only the outer husk. He has since come to feel that in Hasidism the essence of Jewish faith and religiosity was visible in the structure of the community but that this essence has also been present ‘in a less condensed form everywhere in Judaism,’ in the ‘inaccessible structure of the personal life.’ Buber differs from other thinkers in regarding the life of the Hasidim as the core of Hasidism and the philosophical texts as a gloss on the life as it is depicted in the legends. In his first Hasidic books Buber exercised a great deal of freedom in the retelling of the Hasidic legends in the belief that this was the best way to get at the essence of the Hasidic spirit. (Israel and the World, ‘The Faith of Judaism,’ p. 13; Hasidism, ‘The Beginnings of Hasidism,’ p. 4 f., Die Legende des Baalschem, op. cit., ‘Einleitung.’ Lazar Gulkowitsch writes of Buber’s early poetic recreations of Hasidism: ‘Since Martin Buber is a poet who himself inclines to mysticism, Hasidism in his representation takes on an all too mysterious colouring while its natural childlike quality and its sheer naïveté do not receive adequate emphasis.’ Gulkowitsch, Der Hasidismus, op. cit., p. 66 [my translation]). In 1921 he rejected this method of translating on the grounds that it was ‘too free.’ His later tales, accordingly, are closely faithful to the simple and rough originals. They are often fragmentary sayings and anecdotes rather than complete stories. (Tales of the Hasidim, The Early Masters, op. cit., p. xi. Cf. pp. v-xii and Martin Buber, Der grosse Maggid und seine Nachfolge [Frankfurt am Main: Rütten & Loenig, 1922], Vorwort, pp. v-ix.) Technical criticism of Buber’s retelling of the Hasidic legends is beside the point, writes Ludwig Lewisohn. These legends will remain a permanent possession of mankind in the form he has given them by virtue of that form which has itself become a part of their message and meaning. Thus, too, his reinterpretation of the Jewish past is beyond the arbitrament of factual scholarship; it has the permanence of great artistic vision; it has created that past in the soul of the present and is itself an enduring part of Jewish reality. (Lewishon, Rebirth, op. cit., p. 87) No one who has read carefully Buber’s later Hasidic tales and Biblical interpretations could now accuse him of undue freedom, no matter how much they might disagree with his methods or with the conclusions that he reaches. A much more serious and frequent criticism is the fact that Buber does not regard the Jewish law as essential to the Jewish tradition. To understand this attitude we must go back to the last of his ‘Talks on Judaism’ in which he contrasts the false desire for security of the dogmatists of the law with the ‘holy insecurity’ of the truly religious man who does not divorce his action from his intention. Religious truth is obstructed, writes Buber, by those who demand obedience to all the commandments of the Jewish law without actually believing that law to be directly revealed by God. To obey the Mizwot without this basic feeling means to abandon both them and oneself to an autonomous ethic. The relation to the Absolute is a relation of the whole man, undivided in mind and soul. To cut off the actions that express this relation from the affirmation of the whole human mind means to profane them. The image of man toward which we strive is one in which conviction and will, personality and its deed are one and indivisible. (Reden über das Judentum, op. cit., ‘Cheruth’ [1919], pp. 202-209, 217-224.) The dogmatists of the law reply to Buber that spirit remains a shadow and command an empty shell if one does not lend them life and consciousness from the fountain of Jewish tradition. Otherwise, they say, your direction will be self-will and arbitrariness rather than what is necessary. How can you decide between that part of God’s word which appears to you fresh and applicable and that which appears to you old and worn out? Buber answers this challenge in terms of the ‘holy insecurity’ which makes one willing to risk oneself ever again without hoping to find once for all a secure truth. O you secure and safe ones who hide yourselves behind the defence-works of the law so that you will not have to look into God’s abyss! Yes, you have secure ground under your feet while we hang suspended, looking out over the endless deeps. But we would not exchange our dizzy insecurity and our poverty for your security and abundance. For to you God is one who created once and not again; but to us God is he who ‘renews the work of creation every day.’ To you God is one who revealed himself once and no more; but to us he speaks out of the burning thorn-bush of the present . . . in the revelations of our innermost hearts -- greater than words. We know of his will only the eternal; the temporal we must command for ourselves, ourselves imprint his wordless bidding ever anew in the stuff of reality.... In genuine life between men the new word will reveal itself to us. First we must act, then we shall receive: from out of our own deed. (Ibid., ‘Der heilige Weg’ [1919], pp. 65, 71 [my translation]). There is a significant continuity between Buber’s present attitude and that of these early essays. To Buber Zionism represents the opportunity of the people to continue its ancient existence on the land which has been interrupted by the generations of exile. This implies that Jewish existence in the diaspora from the time of the exile to the present cannot be understood as Judaism in the full sense of the term. The religious observances developed in the exile have the character, in Buber’s opinion, of conserving what was realized in the Jewish state before the exile. Following Moses Hess, he holds that the spirit of the old Jewish institutions which is presented by these obsenances will have the power to create new laws in accordance with the needs of the time and the people once it is able to develop freely again on the soil of Palestine. (Israel and Palestine, p. 122.) Buber’s position on the law has been interpreted by many, such as the Orthodox leader Jacob Rosenheim, as a dangerous glorification of subjective feeling at the expense of the objective content of actions.) Jacob Rosenheim, Beiträge zur Orientierung im jüdischen Geistesleben der Gegenwart (Zurich: Verlag ‘A’zenu,’ 5680, 1920), pp. 10, 19-23, 27 ff.) This criticism reveals a total misunderstanding of Buber’s philosophy of dialogue which is, as we have seen, a narrow ridge between the abysses of objectivism on the one side and subjectivism on the other. Even some critics who accept the fundamental reality of the I-Thou relation as ‘the centre of any genuine religious experience’ treat ‘revelation’ as the objective -- ‘the act of God whereby He has disclosed the way and destiny of Israel’ -- and meeting, or the I-Thou relation, as the subjective -- ‘the act of man whereby that destiny and its divine source are drawn into the inner life of the individual.’ Man’s response to God thus becomes subjective ‘apprehension’ of an objective truth, and the objectified law becomes more important than the relation with God itself. (Arthur A. Cohen, ‘Revelation and Law, Reflections on Martin Buber’s Views on Halakah,’ Judaism, Vol. I, No. 3 [July 1952], pp. 250-256. For a fuller criticism of Cohen see my article, ‘Revelation and Law in the Thought of Martin Buber,’ Judaism, Vol. III, No. I [Winter 1954], p. 16. For an attitude similar to Cohen’s see Will Herberg’s treatment of the law in Judaism and Modern Man [New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1951]). Another not infrequent misunderstanding of Buber’s attitude toward the law is that it is in reality a form of antinomianism. Here as elsewhere those who think exclusively in terms of either-or find it very difficult to follow Buber’s thought. What Buber is really stressing is the danger of ‘anticipated objectification’ -- the danger of preventing the personal renewal of the instruction when it becomes objectified and rigid as it inevitably must.)From a statement made by Professor Buber at a small discussion group in New York City, December 1951.)Personal responsibility is as far from lawlessness on the one side as it is from rigidified formal law on the other. The history of antinomian sects and movements, Buber writes, shows clearly that the isolated divine freedom abolishes itself when it rebels against divine law. ‘Without law, that is, without any clear-cut and transmissible line of demarcation between that which is pleasing to God and that which is displeasing to Him, there can be no historical continuity of divine rule upon earth.’ The reciprocity between man and God implies, however, that the divine law must be freely apprehended by one’s own act. (Moses, op. cit., p. 187 f.; Eclipse of God, ‘Religion and Ethics,’ p. 129 f.) This in no way implies the position of the antinomians who claim that the law as such displaces freedom and the spirit and therefore ought to be replaced by them. The true argument of the rebellion is that in the world of the law what has been inspired always becomes emptied of the spirit, but that in this state it continues to maintain its claim of full inspiration; or, in other words, that the living element always dies off but that thereafter what is left continues to rule over living men. And the true conclusion is that the law must again and again immerse itself in the consuming and purifying fire of the spirit, in order to renew itself and anew refine the genuine substance out of the dross of what has become false. (Moses, p. 188.) Franz Rosenzweig has written the best-known and most persuasive criticism of Buber’s position on the law. In ‘Die Bauleute’ Rosenzweig makes clear that his support of the law is based upon the covenant that God has made, not with our fathers, ‘but with us, us, these here today, us all, the living.’ The content of the teaching must be transformed into the power of our actions; general law must become personal command. The selection of that part of the law which the individual shall perform is an entirely individual one since it depends not upon the will but upon what one is able to do. This selection cannot err for it is based upon obedience of the whole person rather than arbitrary choice. (Franz Rosenzweig, ‘Die Bauleute. "Über das Gesetz." An Martin Buber.’ Kleinere Schriften, op. cit., pp. 109-117, 120.) In his reply to ‘Die Bauleute’ Buber makes a distinction between revelation and the giving of the law which Rosenzweig has failed to make: ‘I do not believe that revelation is ever lawgiving, and in the fact that lawgiving always comes out of it, I see the fact of human opposition, the fact of man.’ Rosenzweig recognizes the importance of making the law one’s own, but he affirms the whole of the law to be divine prior to this personal appropriation, while Buber cannot. Rosenzweig accepts the command as from God and leaves open the question of whether the individual can fulfill it, whereas Buber remains close to the dialogue and makes the real question whether it really is a command of God to oneself. To Buber the law cannot be accepted unless it is believed in, and it cannot be believed in as something general or universal but only as an embodiment of a real address by God to particular individuals. ‘Is that said to me, really to me?’ Buber asks. On this basis he can at times join himself to the Israel to whom a particular law is addressed and many times not. ‘And if I could with undivided heart name anything mitzwa (Divine command or prescription.) in my own life, it is just this, that I thus do and thus leave undone.’ (Martin Buber, ‘Offenbarung und Gesetz’ [from letters to Franz Rosenzweig], Almanach des Schocken Verlags auf das Jahr 5697 (1936-37), pp. 149-153 [my translation]. [The dates of the letters are 1/10/22; 1/7/24- 5/7/24.] Cf. Franz Rosenzweig, Briefe, ed. by Edith Rosenzweig with the co-operation of Ernst Simon [Berlin: Schocken Verlag, 1935], # 399 To Martin Buber [16/7/24], p. 504 f.; # 398 To Martin Buber[(29/6/24], p. 503 f., and # 400 To Martin Buber [July 1924], p. 505.) Rosenzweig wished to induce Buber to accept the law as a universal. This, to Buber, would be ‘faith in a proposition’ (pistis) as opposed to that trust (emunah) which he feels to be the essence of Judaism. The Torah of God is understood as God’s instruction in His way and therefore not as a separate objectivum. It includes laws, and laws are indeed its most vigorous objectivizations, but the Torah itself is essentially not law. A vestige of the actual speaking always adheres to the commanding word, the directing voice is always present or at least its sound is heard fading away. (Two Types of Faith, op. cit., p. 57.) This dialogical quality of the Torah is endangered by the hardening process which brought Torah near the conception of law as an objective possession of Israel and which thereafter tends to supplant the vital contact with the ever-living revelation and instruction. The struggle against this tendency to make the keeping of rules independent of the surrender to the divine will runs through the whole history of Israelite-Jewish faith -- from the prophet’s protest against sacrifice without intention and the Pharisees’ protest against the ‘tinged-ones’ whose inwardness is a pretence up till its peculiarly modern form in Hasidism, in which every action gains validity only by a specific devotion of the whole man turning immediately to God. Thus though the tendency toward the objectivizing of the Torah gained ground in Israel from the beginning, the actuality of faith again and again liberated the living idea. ‘This inner dialectic of Having and Being is . . . the main moving force in the spiritual history of Israel.’ (Ibid., p. 58 f.) Today, however, ‘Israel and the principle of its being have come apart.’ Despite a national home and freedom to realize itself, the rift between the people and the faith is wider than ever. (At the Turning, op. cit., p. 24) In this breaking-up of the nation and faith the purpose of becoming a holy nation is repudiated. Reform Judaism tends to look on Judaism as religious creed, Orthodox Judaism tends to look on it as religious laws, both without the real existence of a people as a people. Zionists tend to look on it as a national destiny and perhaps also a culture but not as a people embodying an essential relationship to God in the life of the community. The only remedy for this splitting-apart of nation and faith is a great renewal of the national faith. The dialectic of Israel between those giving up themselves to guidance and those ‘letting themselves go’ must come to a decision in the souls themselves, so that the task of becoming a holy nation may set itself in a new situation and a new form suitable to it. The individuals, regenerated in the crisis, who maintain themselves in Emunah, would have fulfilled the function . . . of sustaining the living substance of faith through the darkness. (Two Types of Faith, p. 171 f.) What it means to sustain the living substance of faith through the eclipse is perhaps best shown by Buber’s own leadership of the German Jews in their spiritual war against Naziism. After the rise of Hitler, Buber was appointed as director of the Central Office for Jewish Adult Education in Germany, where ‘he was responsible for the training of teachers for the new schools which had to be established as a result of the exclusion of Jewish students from all German educational institutions.’ He also helped guide the teaching, learning, and training activities of the numerous Jewish youth organizations, and he headed the Frankfurter Jüdische Lehrhaus, a free college for Jewish adult education. (Wolf, ‘Martin Buber and German Jewry,’p. 351.) From these central and strategic positions, Buber directed his spiritual energies to the remotest corners of the Jewish community. To the thousands who were reached and electrified by his words it meant the difference between the suffering of a meaningless fate and the liberating insight into the ultimate triumph of Jewish spirit which knows no defeat.... He was able to save many from spiritual despair. (Ibid., p. 351 f.) Martin Buber led a whole community of Jews to a deeper affirmation of their Jewishness, Ernest Wolf concludes. And Jacob Minkin writes: He counselled, comforted, raised their dejected spirits.... Perhaps not many of those who listened to him survived the fiendish slaughter, but if they perished, they died with a firmer faith in their hearts and a deeper conviction in their minds of their people’s spiritual destiny. Martin Buber had taught them to die as Jews had always died -- sanctifying the Name. (Jacob S. Minkin, ‘The Amazing Martin Buber,’ Congress Weekly, Vol. XVI (January 17, 1949), p. 10 ff.) In the spring of 1952 Buber was awarded the Goethe Prize by the University of Hamburg for his ‘activity in the spirit of a genuine humanity’ and for ‘an exemplary cultural activity which serves the mutual understanding of men and the preservation and continuation of a high spiritual tradition.’ In accepting this award Buber recalled the number of Germans whom he knew during the time of Hitler who risked punishment and death in order to help the German Jews. ‘I see this as a more than personal manifestation and a symbolic confession,’ he wrote, ‘and accept it as such.’ This award was indeed a more than personal symbol, but it was of great personal significance as well: Martin Buber is the only person who stands in such a relation to the Germans, the Jews, and the people of the world that he might receive such a confession for his people. 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__label__wiki	0.946891	0.946891	Possessing a smoky and striking alto singing voice, Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Lauren Daigle went to number one on the Billboard Christian chart with her first album, 2015's How Can It Be. Having already drawn some comparisons to Adele, her more soulful follow-up, Look Up Child, was an even bigger hit, reaching number three on the Billboard 200. Growing up in Lafayette, Louisiana surrounded by gospel, zydeco, blues, and Cajun music, Christian praise & worship artist Lauren Daigle was always singing around the house as a child. However, it wasn't until a serious illness kept her out of school for nearly two years beginning when she was 15 that she turned to music as both solace and a profession. Home-schooled during that time, music became Daigle's hedge against social isolation, and she began singing at her local church as a praise & worship leader. Colleagues quickly encouraged her to try out for the American Idol television series, which she did in both 2010 and 2012. The demanding process of trying out for the show taught her a lot of valuable lessons, and she returned home determined to sharpen her writing and singing skills. She began pursuing a degree in child and family studies at Louisiana State University, and while there, was asked by a local band to help with vocals on an EP. A demo of the EP made its way to the Centricity Music label, and they signed Daigle as a solo artist in 2013. Her five-song debut EP, the Paul Mabury-produced How Can It Be, was released in late 2014 and landed on the Christian charts. In the spring of 2015, How Can It Be was expanded into a full-length LP and became both a critical and commercial success, crossing over to reach number 30 on the Billboard Top 200 chart and eventually going platinum. It was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2016 for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album. Daigle followed up in October 2016 with an album of soft jazz-inspired Christmas standards called Behold. It repeated the chart success of her debut. The following year saw her contribute the single "Almost Human" to the soundtrack for Blade Runner 2049, and she received her second Grammy nomination, this time in the category of Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song for "Trust in You." In early 2018, Daigle issued the single "You Say" ahead of the release of her sophomore full-length. The song marked her debut on the Hot 100, reaching number 44, and the album, September 2018's Look Up Child, became a Top Three hit in the U.S. It also charted in Australia and Switzerland. Before the end of the month, Daigle became the first artist to reach number one on five Christian charts simultaneously (albums, airplay, songs, streaming songs, and digital song sales). Early the following year, she collected Grammys for both "You Say" and Look Up Child (Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song and Album). © Steve Leggett & Marcy Donelson /TiVo 4 Alben sortiert nach Am meisten ausgezeichnet und gefiltert nach 24 bits / 44.1 kHz - Stereo Centricity Music (CEY) (3) Centricity Music - 12Tone Music, LLC (1) 24 bits / 44.1 kHz - Stereo 0,00 € bis 5,00 € (1) Hörbücher - Erschienen am 7. September 2018 \| Centricity Music - 12Tone Music, LLC Lounge - Erschienen am 21. Oktober 2016 \| Centricity Music (CEY) How Can It Be Hörbücher - Erschienen am 14. April 2015 \| Centricity Music (CEY) Lounge - Erschienen am 23. November 2018 \| Centricity Music (CEY)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513039
__label__wiki	0.913601	0.913601	You are here: Home / News / King and Vilsack debate in Orange City tonight King and Vilsack debate in Orange City tonight September 27, 2012 By O. Kay Henderson The fourth face-to-face debate between Republican Congressman Steve King and Christie Vilsack, his Democratic challenger, was held tonight and King opened with a subtle attack on Vilsack, who moved to Ames to run in the new fourth congressional district. “I live here. My roots are here,” King said. “They’re going to stay here, whatever happens in November.” Later, King said he wanted to know whether Vilsack and her husband — former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack and the current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture — supported a particular bill, prompting Christie Vilsack to make this declaration: “Congressman King, you’re running against me, not against my husband.” Midway through the hour-long event the two quarreled over the languishing Farm Bill as they have in their three previous debates. “I’m sitting in a position where I expect to be on the conference committee and we’ll have a voice of Iowa there when we hammer the last bill out,” King said. Vilsack replied: “I don’t think that you’re going to be on a conference committee. You haven’t shown leadership in other situations either and I don’t think you’re going to show leadership here.” Vilsack suggested there was a reason King was the only member of Iowa’s congressional delegation who did not sign a petition calling for a vote in the House on the Farm Bill. “I think there are $136,000 reasons why he didn’t do that and those are the dollars that he is receiving from the Club for Growth,” Vilsack said. The Club for Growth issued a statement saying support of that petition would “count heavily as anti-growth” on the group’s “congressional scorecard.” King immediately shot back by criticizing the way Vilsack’s husband is running the USDA’s food stamp program. “The USDA has been spending millions of dollars advertising food stamps. They’ve gone from 19 million people on food stamps a few years ago to 47 million today,” King said. “That’s the bigger part of the argument going on in congress and that is hurting our agriculture.” The debate was held in Orange City, on the campus of Northwestern College. It was sponsored by KTIV TV in Sioux City. Filed Under: News, Politics / Govt Tagged With: Democratic Party, Republican Party, Steve King, Tom Vilsack	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513041
__label__cc	0.716942	0.283058	Aliyah Bacca was called to education as a young child and has always pursued knowledge, justice, and equity from the moment she learned she had a voice. She holds a Bachelors Degree from Howard University in Washington D.C., which includes a major in English Literature with a minor in Secondary Education. She has been teaching middle school and some high school all over the country for over 13 years now, and she is passionate about the power of education to affect change in the global society. Additionally, she loves to read all genres of literature, but she especially loves historical fiction. When she is not teaching, she loves to go on long walks with her husband and furry poodle Jupiter. Her key goal as an educator is to help students actualize their dreams for their future and find their place in the world. Hi, my name is Aisha Hassan. I was born in Somalia and I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. I have my bachelor’s degree in chemistry and master’s degree in education from University of Utah. I have taught chemistry at Hunter High School for the past six years. My passion, what inspires me, is inclusive classrooms. This is an area where I am constantly making growth as an educator as I am building relationships with students who give me feedback. This passion has further developed my philosophy that learning is a point of access. Providing access to all my students is a priority for me as an educator. As a chemistry teacher, it is also my mission to provide STEM access for my underrepresented students. Therefore, I continuously strive to create safe, caring, and equitable learning space for my students. When I first started working at Hunter High, the chemistry class offerings were separated into regular chemistry and honors chemistry. The school had a narrow perspective of what constituted an honors student versus what constituted a general education student. This narrow view kept many strong chemistry students, mainly students of color, from the honors and AP track. I had a strong belief that inclusive classrooms would both eliminate this narrow lens and at the same time provide opportunities for students often overlooked in the traditional system--this includes students of color and students of lower socioeconomic background. In the past six years, I have taken a leadership role in pushing for inclusive classrooms. By modeling how to mix an honors and general chemistry classroom, how to use multi-modal approaches to assessment, and give support to less traditional students, I have helped my fellow teachers see the benefits and possibilities of an inclusive learning environment. As a result, the honors and AP chemistry program at Hunter High has seen significant growth in the representation of students of color, girls, and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. My work in inclusion has tasked me to see my students as unique individuals with funds of knowledge that must be accessed. If my first interactions with them is based on notes on a computer that identify them as SPED, EL, honors, or regular, I am liable to miss their strengths or fail to see their needs. My most important job is to provide a learning space that empowers my students in their learning journey so that they can move on to make the contributions they are capable of making in the greater world. Failure to meet their needs means failure for them to meet their best potential. I am proud of the role I have played in asking administrators, fellow teachers, parents, and students to see learning as an individual journey. One that should not be held back by labels, but one where every person has something to offer. Across the state of Utah, I have worked with teachers who are equally passionate about this work, but were not sure as to how to proceed. Once again, I have decided to take the risk of opening up my classroom and practice to others. It only through this willingness to be vulnerable that we grow and invite others to grow alongside us. It is my work to develop inclusive classrooms and encourage teachers to take risks that I feel have been my greatest contributions so far. Jaynell BIO COMING SOON Greetings families, I am so excited to be a teacher at Rise Virtual Academy and afforded the opportunity to introduce myself. Prior to teaching in public school I received a bachelor of science in psychology. I worked as a marriage and family counselor, with at risk families, in both NY and Atlanta for four years. During that time, as an intern for a licensed clinical social worker, I helped families who were going through child protective services stick to a reunification plan, start their healing process as a family, and reunite if at all possible. I also helped couples address marital issues. My intention was to become a clinical psychologist. However, I left my career in counseling when my son Elijah was diagnosed with dysgraphia, dyslexia, and unilateral deafness in addition to his moderate speech impediment. At the age of 9 Elijah was also still unable to read beyond a first grade level. I made it my absolute goal to not only teach Elijah to read well, but to excel academically. It was hard work but my efforts were justified when Elijah scored a 33/36 on the reading section of his ACT exam and an invitation only scholarship to The University of Utah. Currently I am in my fourth year of teaching in the public school system. I have a M.Ed with a Reading endorsement. I will complete the course work for my Gifted & Talented Endorsement, ESL Endorsement, and Administrative Certificate later this school year. A a black educator I value the opportunity to teach an audience of black students the curriculum made available by Rise Virtual Academy. I am excited to go on this educational journey with you all and look forward to building with you all. Nicole Herrera © 2020 by Rise Virtual Academy	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513044
__label__cc	0.630867	0.369133	Dean’s Advisory Board Dean’s Lecture Series Graduate Degrees and Advanced Certificates Key Research Areas Search People by Areas of Expertise Computing and Information Sciences Ph.D. Global Cybersecurity Institute Golisano College of Computing and Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences Computer Science Master of science degree Master of science degree Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences / / Academics / Computer Science MS 81a88c54-918c-403f-9fff-169ff7db16ac \| 90559 Inquire about graduate study Visit Apply Hans-Peter Bischof, Professor 585‑475‑5568, hpb@cs.rit.edu Offered within the In this dynamic computer science master's degree, you'll explore computer graphics and visualization, data management, and intelligent systems while developing the skills to excel in this ever-changing field. STEM-OPT Visa Eligible median first-year salary of graduates The computer science masters is designed for students who have an undergraduate degree (or minor) in computer science, as well as those who have a strong background in a field in which computers are applied, such as engineering, science, or business. You’ll apply theoretical principles underlying computer science, ensuring you acquire the intellectual tools necessary to keep up-to-date in this rapidly evolving discipline. With focused course work in areas such as computer graphics and visualization, data management, distributed systems, intelligent systems, programming languages and tools, and security, you’ll be prepared for career advancement in a range of areas. The program consists of a core curriculum, a diverse set of clusters, and many additional electives. The clusters provide students with the opportunity to obtain depth in a computer science discipline. The electives add the necessary breadth of knowledge required by industry. This combination prepares our graduates to engineer modern computing systems and contribute to all aspects of systems life cycles. Clusters are offered in a variety of areas, including computer graphics and visualization, data management, distributed systems, intelligent systems, programming languages and tools, security, and theory. Certain pre-approved courses from other departments also may be counted toward the degree. The computer science master's helps students prepare for academic and research careers in computer science or a related discipline. The program is designed for students who have an undergraduate major or minor in computer science as well as those who have a strong background in a field in which computers are applied. Faculty members in the department are actively engaged in research in artificial intelligence, wireless networks, pattern recognition, computer vision, visualization, data management, combinatorics, and distributed computing systems. There are many opportunities for graduate students to participate in these activities toward thesis or project work and independent study. Plan of study The program consists of one core course, three courses in a cluster, four electives, and a thesis or project. For those choosing to complete a project in place of a thesis, students complete one additional elective. The degree is offered on a full- or part-time basis. Full-time students take three or four courses per semester and may be able to complete the course work in three semesters. Full-time students who are required to take additional bridge courses may be able to complete the course work in four semesters. Part-time students take one or two courses per semester and may be able to complete the course work in four to five semesters. The time required to complete a master’s project is one semester. To complete a master’s thesis, two semesters is typical. Students select three cluster courses from the following areas: The computer graphics and visualization cluster provides the technical foundations for graduate studies in computer graphics and image understanding. Areas for further study include graphics programming, rendering and image synthesis, computer animation and virtual reality, image processing, and analysis, and data visualization. The data management cluster studies the foundational data management and knowledge discovery challenges prevalent in design, analysis, and organization of data. The courses cover general database issues including database design, database theory, data management, and data mining. The distributed systems cluster studies systems formed from multiple cooperating computers, including the analysis, design, and implementation of distributed systems, distributed middleware, and computer networking protocols, including security. Intelligent systems encompasses the study of algorithms and architectures that enable effective decision making in complex environments. Courses cover computer vision, robotics, virtual theater, sensor networks, data mining, document recognition, and the theoretical foundations of decision-making (e.g., Markov chains and the properties of voting protocols). The languages and tools cluster combines language design and implementation together with architecture and the use of software development tools. Students specializing in this cluster gain a broad understanding of theoretical and applied knowledge. The security cluster spans topics from networking to cryptography to secure databases. By choosing different domains in which to study security students gain a broad understanding of both theoretical and applied knowledge. The theory cluster studies the fundamentals of computation, which includes complexity theory to determine the inherent limits of computation, communication, and cryptography and the design and analysis of algorithms to obtain optimal solutions within those limits. Electives provide a breadth of experience in computer science and applications areas. Students who wish to include courses from departments outside of computer science need prior approval from the graduate program director. Refer to the course descriptions in the departments of computer science, engineering, mathematical sciences, and imaging science for possible elective courses. Master's thesis/project Students may choose the thesis or project option as the capstone to the program. Students who choose the project option must register for Computer Science MS Project. Students participate in required in-class presentations that are critiqued. A summary project report and public presentation of the student's project (in poster form) occurs at the end of the semester. Join us virtually. Dive into graduate academics and research to expand your future career opportunities. See event schedule Biotech and Life Sciences Electronic and Computer Hardware Typical Job Titles Software Developer Software Engineer Application Developer Programmer/Analyst Database Administrator Security Engineer Curriculum for Computer Science MS View Printable Curriculum Computer Science (thesis option), MS degree, typical course sequence Sem. Cr. Hrs. CSCI-665 Foundations of Algorithms This course provides an introduction to the design and analysis of algorithms. It covers a variety of classical algorithms and their complexity and will equip students with the intellectual tools to design, analyze, implement, and evaluate their own algorithms. Note: students who take CSCI-261 or CSCI-264 may not take CSCI-665 for credit. (Prerequisites: (CSCI-603 and CSCI-605 and CSCI-661 with grades of B or better) or ((CSCI-243 or SWEN-262) and (CSCI-262 or CSCI-263)) or equivalent courses. This course is restricted to COMPSCI-MS, COMPSCI-BS/MS, or COMPIS-PHD students.) Lec/Lab 3 (Fall, Spring). Computer Science MS Thesis Thesis capstone of the master's degree program. Student must submit an acceptable thesis proposal in order to enroll. It is expected that the work would lead to a paper of the caliber of those generally acceptable to a national conference. (Enrollment in this course requires permission from the department offering the course.) Thesis (Fall, Spring, Summer). Cluster Courses Total Semester Credit Hours Computer Science (project option), MS degree, typical course sequence Computer Science MS Project Project capstone of the master's degree program. Students select from a set of possible projects and confirm that they have a project adviser. Students enroll in a required colloquium component that meets weekly, during which they present information, related to their projects. Projects culminate with delivery of a final report and participation in a poster session open to the public. (Restricted to students in COMPSCI-MS and COMPSCI-BS/MS programs.) Colloquium 3, Project 3 (Fall, Spring, Summer). To be considered for admission to the MS in computer science, candidates must fulfill the following requirements: Complete a graduate application. Hold a baccalaureate degree (or equivalent) from an accredited university or college. Submit official transcripts (in English) of all previously completed undergraduate and graduate course work. Have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 (or equivalent). Applicants with undergraduate degrees from foreign colleges and universities are required to submit GRE scores. RIT may also request GRE scores from other applicants. Submit a personal statement of educational objectives outlining the applicant’s research/project interests, career goals, and suitability to the program. Submit a current resume or curriculum vitae. Submit two letters of recommendation from academic or professional sources. International applicants whose native language is not English must submit scores from the TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE. A minimum TOEFL score of 88 (internet-based) is required. A minimum IELTS score of 6.5 is required. The English language test score requirement is waived for native speakers of English or for those submitting transcripts from degrees earned at American institutions. Applicants must satisfy prerequisite requirements in mathematics (differential and integral calculus, probability and statistics, discrete mathematics, and computer science theory) and computing (experience with a modern high-level language [e.g., C++, Java], data structures, software design methodology, introductory computer architecture, operating systems, and programming language concepts). If an applicant lacks any prerequisites, bridge courses may be recommended to provide students with the required knowledge and skills needed for the program. If any bridge courses are indicated in a student's plan of study, the student may be admitted to the program on the condition that they successfully complete the recommended bridge courses with a grade of B (3.0) or better (courses with lower grades must be repeated). Generally, formal acceptance into the program is deferred until the applicant has made significant progress in this additional course work. Bridge program courses are not counted as part of the 30 credit hours required for the master's degree. During orientation, bridge exams are conducted. These exams are the equivalent to the finals of the bridge courses. Bridge courses will be waived if the exams are passed. Learn about admissions, cost, and financial aid Richard Zanibbi Peizhao Hu Ivona Bezakova All Program Faculty Faculty members in the department of computer science are actively engaged in the following research areas: artificial intelligence, computer graphics and visualization, computer science education, data science, distributed systems, language and tools, security, and theory. There are many opportunities for graduate students to participate in these research activities as part of their thesis or project work and as independent study. Visualizations help make COVID-19 spread models more accessible Computer science researchers at RIT want to make it easier for people to understand how COVID-19 can spread. The researchers have turned complicated predictive COVID models into interactive visualizations for the general public. Scientists complete yearlong pulsar timing study after reviving long-dormant radio telescopes While the scientific community grapples with the loss of the Arecibo radio telescope, astronomers who recently revived a long-dormant radio telescope array in Argentina hope it can help modestly compensate for the work Arecibo did in pulsar timing. RIT researchers create programmable network switch to improve IP lookup time A team of RIT computer science researchers has created a new programmable switch that significantly reduces lookup time, helping to improve router performance by more than 100 percent.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513046
__label__wiki	0.678073	0.678073	Book XXVII Chapter 6: Elections[210 BC] On the dictator's arrival in Rome he sent Gaius Sempronius Blaesus, who had been his second in command in Capua, to the army in Etruria, to relieve Gaius Calpurnius, to whom he had sent written instructions to take over the command of his own army at Capua. He fixed the earliest possible date for the elections, but they could not be closed owing to a difference between the tribunes and the Dictator. The junior century of the Galerian tribe had obtained the first place in the order of voting, and they had declared for Quintus Fulvius and Quintus Fabius. The other centuries, summoned in their order, would have gone the same way, had not two of the tribunes of the plebs Gaius Arennius and his brother Lucius intervened. They said that it was infringing the rights of his fellow-citizens for a magistrate to extend his period of office, and it was a still greater offence for the man who was conducting the elections to allow himself to be elected. If, therefore, the Dictator accepted votes for himself, they should place their veto on the proceedings, but if the names of any others than himself were put up, they would not stop the election. The Dictator defended the procedure by alleging the authority of the senate and a resolution of the Assembly as precedents. "When Gnaeus Servilius," he said, "was consul and the other consul [Note 1] had fallen in battle at Lake Thrasymenus, this question was referred by authority of the senate to the plebs, and they passed a resolution that as long as there was war in Italy the people had the right to reappoint as consuls, any who had been consuls, as often as they pleased. I have an old precedent [Note 2] for my action in this instance in the case of Lucius Postumius Megellus, who was elected consul together with Gaius Junius Bubulcus at the very election over which he was presiding as interrex, and a recent one in the case of Quintus Fabius Maximus, who would certainly never have allowed himself to be re-elected if it had not been in the interest of the State." A long discussion followed, and at last an agreement was come to between the Dictator and the tribunes that they would abide by the opinion of the senate. In view of the critical position of the State, the senate saw that the conduct of affairs ought to be in the hands of old and tried men of ability and experience in war, and that there ought to be no delay in the elections. The tribunes gave way and the elections were held. Quintus Fabius Maximus was returned as consul for the fifth time, and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus for the fourth time. The elections of praetors followed, the successful candidates being: Lucius Veturius Philo, Titus Quinctius Crispinus, Gaius Hostilius Tubulus and Gaius Aurunculeius. As soon as the magistrates were appointed for the year, Quintus Fulvius laid down his office. At the close of this summer a Carthaginian fleet of forty vesselsunder the command of Hamilcar sailed across to Sardinia and laid waste the territory of Olbia. On the appearance of the praetor Publius Manlius Vulso with his army, they sailed round to the other side of the island and devastated the district of Caralita, after which they returned to Africa with every description of plunder. Several Roman priests died this year and others were appointed in their place. Gaius Servilius was made pontiff in place of Titus Otacilius Crassus. Tiberius Sempronius Longus, son of Tiberius, was appointed augur in place of Titus Otacilius Crassus, Tiberius Sempronius Longus, son of Tiberius, was similarly appointed one of the Keepers of the Sacred Books in place of Tiberius Sempronius Longus, son of Gaius. The deaths took place also of Marcus Marcius, the Rex Sacrorum, and Marcus Aemilius Papus, the Curio Maximus; these vacancies were not filled up during the year. The censors appointed this year were Lucius Veturius Philo and Publius Licinius Crassus, the Pontifex Maximus. Licinius Crassus had not been either consul or praetor before he was made censor, he went straight from the aedileship to the censorship. These censors, however, did not revise the roll of senators, nor did they transact any public business whatever; the death of Lucius Veturius put an end to their censorship, for Licinius at once resigned office. The curule aediles, Lucius Veturius and Publius Licinius Varus, celebrated the Roman Games for one day. The plebeian aediles, Quintus Catius and Lucius Porcius Licinius, devoted the money derived from fines to the casting of bronze statues for the temple of Ceres; they also celebrated the Plebeian Games with great splendour, considering the resources available at the time. Note 1: other consul = Gaius Flamminius Note 2: In 291 BC. Sardinia attacked Event: Sardinia attacked	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513049
__label__wiki	0.773257	0.773257	silviacolasanti.it » Kids » Jesse Owens: An Unauthorized Biography (Heinemann Profiles) Download Jesse Owens: An Unauthorized Biography (Heinemann Profiles) fb2, epub by Philip Steele Author: Philip Steele Publisher: Heinemann/Raintree (March 1, 2001) Subcategory: Kids Other formats: lrf azw lrf lit Philip Steele Biographies English Jesse Owens Biography. Track and Field Athlete (1913–1980). Still, he was expected to work, and at the young age of seven he was picking up to 100 pounds of cotton a day to help his family put food on the table. At the age of nine, Owens moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, where the young ". discovered a world far different than the slower, Southern life he'd known. School proved to be one of the bigger changes. Examines the life of Jesse Owens and his impact on the history of the last century. No current Talk conversations about this book. Jesse Owens was a legendary track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Check this biography to know in details about his life, childhood, profile and timeline. Jesse Owens was a legendary track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Listen now. James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete and four-time gold medalist in the 1936 Olympic Games James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete and four-time gold medalist in the 1936 Olympic Games. Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump, and was recognized in his lifetime as "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history". See a Problem? We’d love your help. Connolly, Sean Neil Armstrong: An Unauthorized Biography (Heinemann Profiles). ISBN 13: 9781575726922. Neil Armstrong: An Unauthorized Biography (Heinemann Profiles). Jesse Owens was a track and field star. Despite achieving a remarkable athletic achievement, Jesse Owens was denied the commercial reward or praise that he might have expected Jesse Owens was a track and field star. His most famous moment came in the 1936 Olympics when he won four gold medals – much to the annoyance of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party who hoped the Olympics would be a showcase for Aryan supremacy. In his later life, Jesse Owens became a goodwill ambassador for America and athletics. The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. Despite achieving a remarkable athletic achievement, Jesse Owens was denied the commercial reward or praise that he might have expected. He was never given a reception by . Roosevelt or future US presidents. This vibrant biography profiles the famed physicist as an acclaimed mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, philosopher, and inventor as well This vibrant biography profiles the famed physicist as an acclaimed mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, philosopher, and inventor as well. Readers will discover the genius who inspired Alexander Pope to write, "Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night; God said 'Let Newton be' and all was light. Jesse Owens was an American athlete. Jesse Owens was born on September 12, 1913, in Oakville, Alabama. He is best remembered for his performance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he won gold medals in the long jump, the 100- and 200-metre dashes, and the 4 x 100-metre relay. He was the first American track and field athlete to win four gold medals at a single Olympic Games. As a child, Owens picked cotton with his family. He excelled as an athlete in high school and college, breaking three world records in one day at the Ohio State University. Describes the life, athletic accomplishments, and career of the sharecroppers' son who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Related to Jesse Owens: An Unauthorized Biography (Heinemann Profiles) Jesse Owens: Track-and-Field Champion (Fact Finders Biographies: Great African Americans) fb2 epub Author: Judy Monroe Hitler's Olympics: The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games fb2 epub Author: Christopher Hilton Patti Smith : An Unauthorized Biography fb2 epub Author: Roberta Bayley,Victor Bockris Senator for Sale: An Unauthorized Biography of Senator Bob Dole fb2 epub Author: Stanley G. Hilton Category: Leaders & Notable People Jesse Owens: Track-And-Field Olympian (Journey to Freedom) fb2 epub Author: Lucia Raatma Category: Geography & Cultures His Way - the Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra fb2 epub Author: Kitty Kelley,Illustrated Ivana Trump: A Very Unauthorized Biography fb2 epub Author: Norman King The 2012 London Olympics: An unofficial guide (The Olympics) fb2 epub Author: Nick Hunter Killy: The Sports Career of Jean-Claude Killy (Sports Legends) fb2 epub Author: Lynn Hahn,Howard Schroeder,James Hahn	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513055
__label__wiki	0.676457	0.676457	Home > Energy > Humboldt Fellow and Science “Jatropha Is Not Competing with Existing Food Crops to Produce Biodiesel” By Ashwani Kumar \| September 7th 2009 10:00 PM \| Print \| E-mail "Jatropha Is Not Competing with Existing Food Crops to Produce Biodiesel” The biofuel market is growing, and with it the development of certain crops to meet energy needs. One of which is Jatropha, a plant that is gaining importance in this sector. Ian Graham the Deputy Director of the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products and professor at the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /?>University of York in the UK answers scitizens questions. A new kind of biofuel is being produced derived from a plant called Jatropha. Can you explain a little about this plant? Jatropha is bush that grows in the warm regions of the world as it is sensitive to colder climates. Once it’s planted it grows and produces nuts that contain oil within a few years, and produces these annually for up to 50 years. Jatropha has been grown in developing countries for many years. In fact, it was distributed by Portuguese sailors from Mexico and South America over a hundred years ago to places such as India, Africa, and South East Asia. It’s been used locally for production of oil that was used in local village based industries for soap production. Since the plants are toxic they have also been used to plant hedges and to keep animals out of areas of land. How does Jatropha compare to other biofuels? The oil that is produced in the nuts of Jatropha is essentially a vegetable oil that is quite similar in terms of fatty acid content such as rapeseed oil. It has quite a typical profile of fatty acids in the oil, and it’s essentially a very good source of biodiesel. Countries like China and Brazil have become very keen on Jatropha. Would you say that Jatropha based biofuel could become a leader in the biofuel market? I think it will certainly persist in that market. One of the main reasons why it will persist in the market is that all of the other so-called first generation biofuels currently rely on vegetable material that has been developed as a source of food or feed. If you look at current sources of biodiesel for example, soy bean oil, rapeseed oil, or palm oil, all of these crops have been developed over the years as a food or feed stock for animals. A similar situation exists with first generation sources of material for bioethanol production with sugar cane, sugar beet, or corn starch all having been developed for food and feed. Unlike these, Jatropha is not a food crop, and it’s not competing with existing food crops to produce biodiesel. Also, one of the really interesting things about it is that it grows quite well on marginal land. In India for example, this is the case, and the Indian government has identified millions of hectares of land, which is suitable for Jatropha plantations. How far has India taken the production of Jatropha? I don’t have the current details of hectares that are planted, but India has invested quite significantly in Jatropha development at the government level. There has also been investments from outside companies such as one of the leading companies D1 Oils from the UK, which has involved both in securing rights to plant Jatropha in India and also in several African countries. Is it ready for wide scale production? There is still a significant amount of research that needs to be done on Jatropha before it could become a dominant and sustainable source of biofuels. The actual breeding and development of the genetic resources of Jatropha are at quite an early stage. A lot of the plantations are being established with early stage varieties. My expectation is that with increased fast track breeding of Jatropha there will be plants that will give higher yields or be more resistant to drought and disease. We also need to know far more about the different genotypes and varieties of Jatropha around the world, and whether there is a large amount of genetic variation that can be used to develop Jatropha crops for different geographical locations. Interview by: Christopher Le Coq Ian Graham is professor at the University of York, in the UK, and the deputy director of the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products. Jatropha a Lucrative alternative for developing world Food vs. fuel and climate change Biofuels status today FACT comments on “Jatropha! A socio‐economic pitfall for Mozambique”by Justiça Ambiental (JA) & União Nacional de Camponeses (UNAC) Can Jatropha provide an alternative source of fuel in developing countries?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513058
__label__wiki	0.693484	0.693484	Air New Zealand Chief People Officer Appointment Tuesday, 8 December 2020, 9:13 am Press Release: Air New Zealand Air New Zealand has promoted Nikki Dines as its next Chief People Officer with effect from 1 February 2021. Ms Dines has been with Air New Zealand since 2013 and has held a variety of roles within the People, Airports, and Pilots teams. This includes leading Air New Zealand’s Pilot group as General Manager Pilots and her more recent role of General Manager People – Corporate, Revenue & Employee Experience. Chief Executive Officer Greg Foran says Nikki has established a proven track record over the past seven years and is well respected for what she’s achieved in her various roles with the company. “Nikki is regarded as an outstanding leader with considerable airline knowledge and experience. Her promotion into the role is a credit to the depth of talent we have within the airline.” Ms Dines holds an LLB (Hons) and BA qualifications from the University of Auckland and prior to joining Air New Zealand, she was a partner with LangtonHudsonButcher. Ms Dines will replace Joe McCollum who will shortly complete his fixed term agreement and will be leaving the company in February to resume his consultancy practice. “I want to thank Joe McCollum, who has played a critical role in helping Air New Zealand navigate the COVID-19 crisis and for getting us in a position to be ready to seize the opportunities ahead”. Find more from Air New Zealand on InfoPages. Job Market Begins 2021 In Good Shape 7:01 AM \| Trade Me Limited	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513059
__label__wiki	0.548083	0.548083	World Video \| Defence \| Foreign Affairs \| Natural Events \| Trade \| NZ in World News \| NZ National News Video \| NZ Regional News \| Search Scoop  World Contribution Of Life In Soil ‘Remains Largely Underestimated’, Says UN Agriculture Agency Saturday, 5 December 2020, 5:52 pm Press Release: UN News © FAO/Manan Vatsyayana Local school children water a vegetable garden at their Primary School in Laos. Even though soil organisms play a crucial role in boosting food production, enhancing nutritious diets, preserving human health, and combating climate change, the real contribution of these tiny life forms remains largely underestimated, the UN agriculture agency (FAO) said on Friday. Ahead of World Soil Day, marked on 5 December, FAO launched its first ever report on "The State of Knowledge of Soil Biodiversity". The report examines the potential of soil organisms in ensuring sustainable agri-food systems and mitigating climate change. "Soil biodiversity and sustainable soil management is a prerequisite for the achievement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals", said FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo. "Therefore, data and information on soil biodiversity, from the national to the global level, are necessary in order to efficiently plan management strategies on a subject that is still poorly known", she added. Biodiversity below According to the report, despite the fact biodiversity loss is at the forefront of global concerns, biodiversity below ground is not being given the prominence it deserves and needs to be fully considered when planning how best to boost sustainable development. "We hope that the knowledge contained in this report will facilitate the assessment of the state of soil biodiversity as an integral part of national- and regional-level biodiversity reporting and any soil surveys", Ms. Semedo advanced. Being one of the main ‘global reservoirs’ of biodiversity, soils host more than 25 percent of the world's biological diversity. In addition, more than 40 percent of living organisms in terrestrial ecosystems are associated with soils during their life cycle. The report defines soil biodiversity as the variety of life belowground, from genes and animal species, to the communities they form, as well as the ecological complexes to which they contribute and to which they belong; from soil micro-habitats to landscapes. These include a wide range of organisms, from unicellular and microscopic forms, to invertebrates such as nematodes, earthworms, arthropods and their larval stages, as well as mammals, reptiles, and amphibians that spend a large part of their life belowground, and a great diversity of algae and fungi. Keep soil alive, protect biodiversity Plants nurture a whole world of creatures in the soil, FAO notes, that in return feed and protect the plants. It is this diverse community of living organisms that keeps the soil healthy and fertile, which constitutes soil biodiversity, and determines the main biogeochemical processes that make life possible on Earth. This year, by addressing the increasing challenges of soil management, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) campaign "Keep soil alive, protect soil biodiversity" aimstoraise awareness of the importance of sustaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being. By encouraging people around the world to engage in proactively improving soil health, the campaign also aims tofight soil biodiversity loss. Threats to soil biodiversity Although soils are essential for human well-being and the sustainability of life on the planet, they are threatened by human activity, climate change and natural disasters. The overuse and misuse of agrochemicals remains one of the major drivers to soil biodiversity loss, thus reducing the potential of soil biodiversity for a sustainable agriculture and food security. Other threats include deforestation, urbanization, soil structure degradation, soil acidification, pollution, wildfires, erosion, and landslides, among other issues, the agency alerts. Soils and climate action Nature-based solutions involving soil microorganisms have a significant potential to mitigate climate change. They play a key role in carbon sequestration and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The report also found that farming activities are the biggest source of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide gases emitted by soils, which derive from the overuse or misuse of nitrogen-containing fertilizers. Future steps Generally, there is a lack of detailed data, policies and actions on soil biodiversity at local, national, regional, and global levels. The report highlighted the need to promote the necessary shift to include biological indicators of soil health along with physical and chemical ones. According to the report, the adoption of sustainable soil management practices by farmers, as a basic premise for preserving soil biodiversity, remains low due to the lack of technical support, provision of incentives and enabling environments, and needs to be scaled up. Find more from UN News on InfoPages.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513060
__label__cc	0.740616	0.259384	Leading Retailers Support Passage of CARES Act Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) President Brian Dodge issued the following statement regarding the CARES Act, legislation crafted to provide economic relief and resources as the US faces the COVID-19 pandemic. "The top priority of the retail industry is to keep our employees, our customers, and the communities we serve safe—that means stopping this virus and keeping families secure. Retailers in grocery and essential goods are going to extraordinary lengths to make sure every family has what they need to weather this crisis. The cashiers, the truck drivers, the distribution center workers, the associates stocking shelves and keeping the stores clean—Americans owe all these workers a debt of gratitude. "On the other side of the industry, millions of retail workers are furloughed or on paid leave today, because non-essential retail is shut down out of an abundance of caution. Our next priority as an industry is getting our entire economy moving again, and back to normal as quickly as we can. Retailers aren’t going to decide when that happens, healthcare experts and medical professionals are going to make that call, but retailers are eager to help America get back to work as quickly as possible when its safe. "The CARES Act addresses retail’s top priorities, and we urge Congress to pass and the president to sign the bill into law quickly. The $2 trillion package provides the kind of aid to hospitals and our healthcare system that we need to stop the spread of COVID-19. The package provides critical resources for out of work Americans—millions of which work in retail—so that they don’t have the added stress of falling behind on bills as they stay home from work. And finally, the package addresses the unique capital needs for businesses that have shut down and will need help re-opening and getting their employees back to work. "The unprecedented speed with which many people found themselves out of work requires bold solutions to put those people back to work as quickly as possible. That’s going to be the key to recovery for families getting back on their feet, and for industries like retail that employ millions of people. The nation’s economic story, where we are a year from now, will largely be determined by how quickly we get people back to work. The CARES Act strikes the right balance of helping people get thru the immediate crisis and preparing businesses to get up and running as quickly as possible."	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513062
__label__cc	0.591576	0.408424	Ego Death and Mind Horror: Possessor (2020) Possessor (2020) is a film that defies complete genre adherence, flitting between science fiction, horror, and arthouse deftly. Directed by Brandon Cronenberg (yes, he is the son of that Cronenberg) Possessor doesn't feel like he is trying to emulate his father's work, but more that it is a modernization of it, an abstraction. Where as his father is known for embracing body horror, this new project could be dubbed "mind horror" and what could be more frightening than losing your sense of self? The film follows a secret assassination agency that has a novel way of completing assignments: they insert a device into a person's brain that lets the assassin implant their consciousness into their body and control them. They then use this hijacked individual to murder whoever the target is and upon completing the deed they kill themselves and are back into their original body. These "body jackers" use a sophisticated machine to stay connected to the host and it takes a lot of skill and a strong will to keep control over the borrowed body. Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) is the best agent but with each kill she loses more of herself. These are ultra-violent murders, and though Tasya doesn't have to bear the physical consequences of these atrocities, the images are burned into her mind and she has frequent flashbacks and hallucinations. She begins to relish the massacres, adding grisly flourishes and going overboard with the destruction. One can't help but see the similarity between her detached killing and the way films and video games offer the same sensation of simulated violence. This is not to say it has the same effect in real life, as the film is obviously this concept taken to an extreme level, but it is an interesting idea and worth exploring. Pain and death leave mental scars even if the outside persona is tightly controlled. Tasya literally has to rehearse how to act like a normal person when she goes home to her family because of the dehumanizing effect of her occupation. Possessor is gorgeously filmed and all of the high-tech equipment on display has a curiously retro and analog aesthetic. Much of the narrative is shrouded in mystery and it's refreshing to see a story that doesn't feel the need to over-explain every little detail. The world feels close to ours, but just askew enough that it could be an alternate universe. One of the most alluring aspects about the film is the judicious use of practical gore effects which is used in conjunction with intriguing image post-processing--this makes for a nightmare inducing atmosphere and does an excellent job portraying the inside of someone's mind (and the shattering of said mind). I found this film to be quite disturbing at times, especially in the third act, and on top of it being brutally gory, it's unabashedly sexual as well, delving into some of the kinkier aspects of what body swapping might entail. Some might also be put off by its more metaphysical jaunts and find it pretentious. However, if one goes into it with an open mind, they will find that it is one of the most haunting and compelling techo-horror films ever made. --Michelle Kisner Tags: 2020, Brandon cronenberg, horror, michelle kisner, Possessor, review, spoiler free, the movie sleuth at 10/01/2020	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513063
__label__cc	0.563742	0.436258	Volvo Penta Launches US Final Assembly of Industrial Engines By Volvo Penta Press Release Volvo Penta announced May 7 the commencement of a final assembly line for production of industrial versatile—or variable speed—diesel engines at its established engine factory in Lexington, TN. The move will improve customization of engine orders based on specific requirements and reduce delivery lead times for Volvo Penta’s growing customer base in the North American market. Volvo Penta made investments and improvements within its 210,000-sq.ft. Lexington, TN, production facility. Since the introduction of its Tier 4 Final range in 2014, Volvo Penta has experienced growth in the industrial market, including segments such as materials handling, construction, raw material exploration, ground support, agriculture, forestry, specialty applications, and power generation. A key contributor to this growth is the fuel efficiency of the engines, as well as the company’s SCR emission-reduction technology that reduces downtime and cost of ownership. “Over the past three years, our industrial business has increased substantially and we’re confident our penetration into the market will only become stronger,” said Ron Huibers, president of Volvo Penta of the Americas. “The decision to begin final assembly at our wholly-owned facility right here in the United States was made not just to improve flexibility and lessen lead times for our customers today, but also to put us in a better position to support future customer needs as we expand our business and enter new industrial segments.” Previously, Volvo Penta either had to maintain a stock of finished industrial diesel engines or order them from Volvo Group facilities outside of the United States with a 12- to 14-week lead time. Now, a stock of base engines will be maintained at the Volvo Penta facility in Tennessee, as well as all components for the company’s D5, D8, D11, D13, and D16 engines. When a customer order is placed, the engine and components are pulled from the shelves and the engine is built, programmed, and tested to the unique specifications required. Orders will be delivered within two weeks. A stock of base engines will be maintained at the facility in Tennessee, as well as all components for Volvo Penta’s D5, D8, D11, D13, and D16 engines. “Catering to the versatility of our customers’ individual specifications, we’re now able to provide them with far greater flexibility to order exactly what they need, while significantly shortening the window of delivery,” said Darren Tasker, vice president of industrial sales for Volvo Penta of the Americas. Volvo Penta made significant investments and improvements within its 210,000-sq.ft. Tennessee production facility to support this endeavor, including a state-of-the-art diesel engine test cell that enables the company to perform on-site testing and specification certification. “As part of the Volvo Group, we are investing further to leverage our established manufacturing operations – both in the areas of assets and skillsets,” said Huibers. “The Volvo Penta engine factory was a natural fit for this particular operation, utilizing our existing, dedicated resources along with some new enhancements, and giving employees an opportunity to expand their expertise.” The start of final assembly is part of Volvo Penta’s ambition to improve its global supply chain for solutions with competitive lead times. Volvo Penta will continue to produce gasoline engines for worldwide distribution at the Tennessee facility as well.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513064
__label__wiki	0.849971	0.849971	Smoothie King Celebrates 800th Global Store Opening by Giving Back to First Responders in Orlando, Florida NEW ORLEANS, LA -- Smoothie King, the leader of the booming smoothie segment, has been raising the bar in the increasingly popular industry for more than 40 years. With the brand’s mission to inspire consumers to live a healthy and active lifestyle, the company is able to reach new guests by supporting passionate franchise owners to open new locations in communities across the world. And now, Smoothie King is celebrating a major milestone: its 800th store is opening for business. The 800th Smoothie King location will start serving customers "Smoothies With a Purpose.®" on Tuesday, August 2 at 7343 West Sand Lake Road in Orlando, Florida. To celebrate the grand opening, franchisees Todd and Lorraine Pater will give away 800 20-ounce smoothies. Smoothie King will also deliver free smoothies to police stations and first responders in Orlando, Winter Park, Oviedo, Lake Mary and Windermere. "My vision is for Smoothie King to help more and more guests around the world achieve their nutrition and fitness goals by using our products to live a healthy and active lifestyle," said Wan Kim, Smoothie King’s Owner and Chief Executive Officer. "Our pace of opening new locations shows that our strategic development efforts are working in highly competitive markets, and this milestone store is a precursor to where the brand is going in the future. Crossing the 800-unit mark is a major achievement that takes us one step closer to reaching our goal to have 1,000 locations open by the end of 2017." The Paters first became familiar with the brand while living in Houston, Texas, where the brand has more than 60 locations. They were instantly hooked on the product and became frequent Smoothie King customers. However, when they moved to Florida, they noticed that there weren’t as many Smoothie King stores in the market. So they inked a multi-unit development deal that will ultimately bring 12 locations to the state. "The community here is really embracing the Smoothie King brand. Our first location has only been open for a few weeks, and we're seeing sales increase every day," said Todd Pater. "We're incredibly excited to celebrate this milestone with the brand and give back to the community with this special celebration. It's a great time to be a franchisee with Smoothie King, and with our current plans to develop a total of 12 stores, we are a clear example that Smoothie King is in rapid growth mode." Smoothie King's 800th store opening comes as the brand celebrates a strong start to the year. In the first half of 2016, the brand boasted a 12.4 percent increase in same-store sales. Smoothie King also opened 44 new stores in 13 states across the Southeast, Northeast and Midwest. That brand’s growth is still going strong—year to date, Smoothie King has signed 64 franchise and area development agreements that will add another 105 stores to the system. That means the brand is on pace to meet or exceed its goal of opening 1,000 units by the end of 2017. Multi-unit development -- like the Paters' agreement in Orlando -- is fueling a lot of that impressive growth. Between January and June, Smoothie King signed multi-unit area development deals in Chicago, Tucson, Dallas, Baltimore and Virginia. As the brand moves forward into the second half of 2016, it will continue to build on that momentum by expanding its reach in new markets, both domestically and internationally. "Now that our 800th unit is officially opening its doors, we're looking ahead to the next major development milestone. And more importantly, we are looking forward to bringing 'Smoothies With a Purpose.®' to new markets and guests all over the world," Kim said. "Bringing our products to new communities gives us the opportunity to help people reach their fitness and nutrition goals by living a healthy and active lifestyle." Lauren Kaminski – No Limit Agency lauren@nolimitagency.com About Smoothie King Franchises, Inc. Smoothie King Franchises, Inc., the original U.S. smoothie franchise, is a privately held, Dallas-based franchise company with 1,000 units worldwide. It was founded in 1973 by Steve Kuhnau, whose mission was to help others achieve better health in a delicious way through smoothies. Today, it continues its “Smoothies With A Purpose” mission through its Clean Blends Initiative that focuses on more whole fruits and vegetables while removing all added sugars, artificial flavors, colors and preservatives and added sugars in many of our blends. The franchise is currently ranked No. 1 by Entrepreneur magazine in the juice bar category for the 26th year, No. 35 overall on the 2017 Franchise 500 list and debuted on the Inc. 5000 list in 2018. The company also offers retail products that include sports beverages, energy bars, vitamins, supplements and more. Explore Other News Articles Smoothie King Celebrates First Half of 2016 with 12.4 Percent Increase in Same-Store Sales	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513065
__label__wiki	0.595406	0.595406	Home > News > 2020 > Social Ventures Australia’s statement on Black Lives Matter Social Ventures Australia’s statement on Black Lives Matter In recent weeks we have been shocked but sadly not surprised as images of racial violence have covered our screens. The death of George Floyd in the American city of Minneapolis has reignited a debate about the treatment of African American people by police and, from this flashpoint, a movement of people stretching across many nations has mobilised once again to seek racial justice and equality. The events in the United States and the burgeoning protests quite rightly provoked the question ‘what does this mean for us in Australia?’ As a nation, as an organisation and as individuals. As a not-for-profit whose mission is to ensure that all Australian individuals and communities can thrive, this is not an academic question, it goes to the heart of what we do. Australia’s record on incarceration of First Nations peoples is amongst the worst in the world. First Nations people make up 3.3% of the Australian population but 28% of the adult prison population. There have been 437 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have died in custody since 1991. The situation for young people is even more stark. Nearly half of young people under justice supervision in Australia are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Against this backdrop, we were horrified by the destruction of Juukan Gorge caves, an irreplaceable sacred site tens of thousands of years old, and it has since become clear that other sites are also at risk. Treatment of First Nations people in the justice system may have been a starting point for the current debate but the wider problems stem from something much deeper – our treatment of Aboriginal people since colonisation – and the protests that have ensued across Australia are targeting systemic racism in all its forms, including racism toward other people of colour. The experience of First Nations people in Australia is unique and particularly acute but racism is also a pernicious influence in the lives of many others too. At SVA, it’s our job to examine the root causes of problems, generate the evidence of successful solutions, work with partners to grow their impact, seek to bring funding and investments into programs and initiatives that have been proven to be successful and we advocate for changes that we think will create a fairer Australia. We seek to influence the systems that hold people back. We also invite our partners, our clients and funders to work with us and commit to changing those systems. Throughout our short history we have worked with many First Nations organisations that are creating change in out of home care, in education, employment, justice as well as those creating connections to country and culture. We are proud of the work we’ve done to help the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience to increase the number of First Nations people graduating for university and with Ganbina, Australia’s most successful Indigenous school to work transition program. We’re deeply grateful that for eight years we’ve been able to call Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa (KJ) one of our most cherished partners to build the evidence base for the success of their working on country program in the Western Desert – connecting people with their land and culture and improving health, wellbeing and environment in the process. And we’ve learnt a lot working with leaders in organisations like the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency who have generously shared their wisdom. But SVA is not a First Nations organisation. We’ve also made our own missteps and have fallen short as an ally. Even now, we could have been much faster to act and speak up in solidarity. The issues are not new, nor the frustration, but the anger is fresh and we know that this is a moment that requires us to act. As an organisation that recognises the impact of systemic racism in preventing people and communities having the chance to thrive, we add our voice to those calling for justice reform to end black deaths in custody and the urgent implementation of all the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. We reaffirm our earlier support for the recommendations in the Uluru Statement from the Heart including for a Voice to Parliament. SVA will continue to support movements for equality and use our brand and our voice and our influence with funders and government officials to advance self-determination, including by throwing our support behind campaigns run by First Nations people and organisations. As an organisation focused on creating impact for others, we are also committed to the ongoing struggle to improve our own engagement with First Nations peoples and building on the commitments in our successive Reconciliation Action Plans. We’ve made progress in codifying the way we work with First Nations organisations. We also have more to do. We have an ongoing obligation to truth telling and to educate ourselves about the history of the brutal treatment of our First Nations people. We must also ensure that we are culturally safe organisation with greater representation of First Nations people and people of colour at all levels of SVA. We will make space to ensure that the voices of First Nations people can be heard and listened to in our work. First Nations peoples know what works in their communities, they are the experts in their own lives and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations are the best way to deliver many services to First Nations Peoples. We share this statement publicly, so that our friends and partners know where we stand, we can be accountable for the commitments we make and to encourage others to think carefully about what steps they can take to be better allies. Share LinkedinFacebookTwitterEmail SVA thanks Lisa Paul for her many years of service as she steps down from the SVA boardOct 13, 2020 Budget 2020: Inclusive recovery at risk as Australia’s community builders sidelinedOct 7, 2020 Strong positive outcomes delivered for families and investors on maturity of Australia’s first social impact bondOct 1, 2020 SVA announces Board changesAug 12, 2020 Social Ventures Australia's statement on Black Lives MatterJul 7, 2020 Tweets by @Social_Ventures SVA Consulting: First Australians From the SVA Quarterly How can evaluation better recognise Indigenous self-determination? The right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination has significant implications for evaluating policies and programs that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. +Audio	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513066
__label__cc	0.683631	0.316369	All Program Types Intensive Language Full Degree Chaminade's Master of Science in Counseling Psychology (MSCP) program is a challengingand exciting program for mental health practitioners in today's Chaminade's Master of Science in Counseling Psychology (MSCP) program is a challengingand exciting program for mental health practitioners in today's society. The program trainseffective counselors by focusing on a variety of areas. These areas include: (1) providing thetraining and supervision the student needs in order to work well in the counseling setting; (2)helping the prospective counselor master the cognitive information required to work within thecounseling process; (3) encouraging self-awareness on the part of student, so that he or she cangrow and make necessary personal changes which are more congruent with the practice ofcounseling; (4) educating individuals to understand the broader context of human dilemmas; (5)providing direct service to clients and (6) working with others who are administering programs. Additional Program Information Western Association of Schools and Colleges Not Yet Reviewd Be the First to Review this Program Advisor Information Update Your Program By entering email address and clicking "Submit" I agree to be contacted by EducationDynamics for additional education products and services, this submission is not required to use our site. Privacy Policy. Privacy Policy \| Terms of Use \| Legal Notice \| Do Not Sell (CA and NV residents) © Copyright 1995-2020 EducationDynamics, LLC Disclosure: EducationDynamics receives compensation for the featured schools on our websites (see “Sponsored Schools” or “Sponsored Listings” or “Sponsored Results”). So what does this mean for you? Compensation may impact where the Sponsored Schools appear on our websites, including whether they appear as a match through our education matching services tool, the order in which they appear in a listing, and/or their ranking. Our websites do not provide, nor are they intended to provide, a comprehensive list of all schools (a) in the United States (b) located in a specific geographic area or (c) that offer a particular program of study. By providing information or agreeing to be contacted by a Sponsored School, you are in no way obligated to apply to or enroll with the school. This is an offer for educational opportunities that may lead to employment and not an offer for nor a guarantee of employment. Students should consult with a representative from the school they select to learn more about career opportunities in that field. Program outcomes vary according to each institution’s specific program curriculum. Financial aid may be available to those who qualify. The information on this page is for informational and research purposes only and is not an assurance of financial aid.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513079
__label__wiki	0.742058	0.742058	The Sidney Sun-Telegraph - Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper By Don Ogle Sidney Sun-Telegraph Seattle Woman Includes Sidney as Part of Her Adventure Don Ogle Lisa Hirata made a stop in Sidney as part of her bicycle journey across the country, receiving the offer of a soft bed from a local resident over her normal tent accommodations. Her four-month trip began in Seattle and had zig-zagged across the western U.S. Like a busy bee flitting from flower to flower, a young Seattle, Wash. woman landed in Sidney over the weekend, getting her first taste of what Nebraska has to offer. At 25, Lisa Hirata has been traveling the western United States in a wandering course, much like a honey bee looking for the best flowers to draw from. But instead of pollen, Hirata is drawing from the experiences of life and the people it brings across her path. Her course is not only zig-zag, but extremely wandering as she makes her way east. She went down the west coast to California, across to New Mexico, up to Yellowstone, back down through Colorado and is on her way back north. Hirata said she doesn't really have a route of travel with the exception of her destination of Minnesota and a week-long canoe trip with friends. Along the way, "I'm just going to places I've wanted to see." In between, she runs through small towns along the way soaking in what experience they have to offer. When she reached Sidney, she was looking for a place to pitch her small tent when a local family offered to let her stay at their home. That's the type of thing she said stands out about her trip. "The people I've met," she said quickly when asked what stands out so far. "Like when I stopped here and they (her Sidney family) offered me a place to stay. That happens a lot, more than you would think." And each stop brings a learning experience. In New Mexico, she met a family that had built a home of recycled materials, living completely off the grid. In Sidney, she learned about Runzas - described as one of the things unique to Nebraska that she should try as she crosses the state. But whether it's a Runza or a national park, each gives Hirata an experience - the primary purpose behind her trip. While she rides about 80 miles or so a day, Hirata said she likes taking her time. "It's never about mileage," she said. "It's about the experience. Sometimes I'll go another way because someone told me about an interesting town or area. She enjoys being outdoors - which fits into her background and the career she's followed so far. She has taken a month-long kayaking adventure from Seattle to Alaska with her brother. After college, she put her degree in environmental studies to work on the east coast, teaching young people about the outdoors by taking them on camping trips for days to a couple of weeks. But this trip is one for her. She worked for months to earn enough for the trip. She learned some bicycle repair so she could handle minor problems. But she does admit, not all her preparation was as good. "I got clip-on shoes so my feet would stay on the peddles better during the long days," Hirata said. "But I only got them about a week before I left and I wasn't used to them. One time I couldn't get them unlatched and I just fell over." She laughs at the memory, saying more practice would probably have been helpful, "but it's also been part of the experience." At five feet with a slim build, it appears Hirata might be outweighed by her touring bike and array of packs that carry her belongings. She said she has learned how to manage, though, making good time as she travels. She does, however, go slower through hilly terrain, which makes her mileage totals diminish. In her bags are a change of clothes, sleeping bag, tent, tools, a paint set, food, small cook stove and fuel, and water - "lots of water." She carries about three days worth of food, knowing that at times she may not always be near a store, but figures in those three days she'll be able to find a place to re-stock. As for the paint set, she said she does occasionally get the chance to paint - sending the finished product back to family. Otherwise, she listened to music and, she says with another laugh "I talk to myself." Hirata said she hasn't worried a lot about her safety, even in the light of recent national news. She is mindful, "but I don't dwell on it a lot." By mid-October, Hirata's adventure will be over. She set out July 4 and gave herself four months to travel, expecting to turn south after her stop in Minnesota. She said she had to give herself the deadline to stop. "Otherwise, I'd just keep going." Ricketts Talks Budget, Pandemic in State Address Two Arrested on Drug Charges Flag for the Fallen COVID Numbers Declining Arterburn, Radcliffe Return to City Council Volkmer Recognized a f...Forrest Hershberger High Plains Ag Lab Liv...Dave Ostdiek City Council Hears Pro...Forrest Hershberger Lawmakers Urged to Bre... Sidney Grapplers Sixth...Mike Motz The Sidney Sun-Telegraph Sidney, NE 69162 © 2021 The Sidney Sun-Telegraph	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513082
__label__wiki	0.984487	0.984487	Willem II Tilb European U21 Championship On Sky Johan Cruyff's season at Feyenoord when he took his revenge on Ajax When Ajax let Johan Cruyff go at the age of 36 he signed for rivals Feyenoord and won the double. This is the story of the Dutch legend's final season as a player... Adam Bate Comment and Analysis @ghostgoal Wednesday 13 January 2021 12:06, UK Image: Johan Cruyff and Ruud Gullit celebrated a remarkable league and cup double with Feyenoord in 1984 His Feyenoord team-mate Sjaak Troost once likened it to him cheating in the presence of his wife. Not just cheating on her, in fact, but insisting on maintaining eye contact throughout. Imagine the shock. This was Johan Cruyff. The legend himself. The man who had inspired Ajax to three consecutive European Cup triumphs in the previous decade before returning from his adventures in Barcelona and beyond to win two more Eredivisie titles for the club. "Johan was Mister Ajax," Troost tells Sky Sports. And now, at the age of 36, he was leaving them for arch-rivals Feyenoord. What followed remains one of the most compelling stories in the history of Dutch football. A story centred on its most singular individual. Arguably, the game's most important figure. 'It's my fault' - Klopp defends toothless Liverpool That season at Feyenoord, his last as a player, provided the perfect punctuation mark to his career. It was not Cruyff at his peak, the version that had won a trio of Ballons d'Or, the star turn at the 1974 World Cup. But perhaps it revealed even more about what made him great. Cruyff did it his own way. Eredivisie table Live football on Sky And if you disagreed, he would prove you wrong. When Celtic beat Cruyff's Ajax The story of Celtic's famous victory over Johan Cruyff's Ajax as remembered by the players who made it happen He had returned to Ajax in 1981 and swiftly wrestled back the Eredivisie title that had been surrendered to AZ Alkmaar. Soon, he became the figurehead for a vibrant Ajax team that was bolstered by the breakthrough performances of a teenage Marco van Basten. "At that time, he was coming back as the big star," Van Basten tells Sky Sports. "I had grown up watching the great teams of Ajax and the national team. It was a great stimulus for me. "I was very proud and very happy that we knew each other so well. After I had become part of the team at Ajax, we became friends and he even became my advisor. It was very special. "And then he went to Feyenoord and became my opponent." Van Basten reflects on his career In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports, Marco van Basten discusses his extraordinary career In the summer of 1983, Cruyff found himself at odds with the Ajax board. A glorious playing career was coming to an end but - as was often the case - he was already the de facto coach. Cruyff never just took part, he took over. Seeds were being sown for him to stay on. And yet, after two successful seasons, the decision was made not to renew his contract. Those higher up were happy to allow him to leave. The deal to keep him was viewed as too expensive given his advancing years. At 36, what harm could letting him go really do? At first, Cruyff was shocked. This was his club and since the death of his father, it had felt even more like home. It is said that even until the day of signing the contract - June 15 1983 - he was anticipating that the decision would be reversed. It was not. Now he was angry and revenge was on his mind. "He came to Feyenoord because Ajax did not listen to him," says Troost. For one of the game's great minds, that was inexcusable. Eredivisie table \| fixtures \| results Get Sky Sports \| Get a Sky Sports Pass If there was unease about the transfer in Amsterdam, over in Rotterdam the feeling was mutual. This was a man who had come to define Ajax. And he wasn't going to come quietly. "Some players had trouble with it in the beginning," admits Troost. He himself was not among them. Despite later being part the squad that won Euro '88, Troost is magnanimous enough to state that even that side did not compare to Cruyff's. "In my opinion, the best Dutch national team in our history is still the national team in 1974," he says. "So, for me, it was not an issue because I still think he is the best player there has ever been. To be allowed to play football with him was indescribable." It was clear from day one that Cruyff was serious about the challenge. Nobody really knew what to expect before the first training session. But during the initial medical examinations, the veteran turned out to be among the fittest in the squad. He had spent his vacation playing tennis every day. During pre-season training, he would lead the early morning six-kilometre run through the forest, a picture of concentration. "It was unbelievable," says Troost, "not an ounce of fat and just focused on winning. Of course, I saw that it took him a lot of effort but what do you want at the age of 36?" "So much respect. Wow. "Soon, everyone was very happy with him and he was admired by all." He was a man on a mission. To play for Feyenoord. To play against Ajax. Image: Johan Cruyff in his Ajax pomp, celebrating a goal in the 1971 European Cup final Even so, there were problems on the pitch early on, not least because of the ideas that he had imparted on a young Ajax side that now included Ronald Koeman as well as Van Basten. It would take time for Feyenoord to embrace these patterns - something that became clear when the first Klassieker came around in the middle of September. A beating beckoned. Ajax won 8-2 in Amsterdam. "We were quickly down 3-0 but when we came back to 3-2 everyone was waiting for the 3-3," remembers Troost. "When it became 4-2 it was over." The game had been in the balance for an hour, Feyenoord had even been dominant, but the result spoke for itself and the Ajax directors were the ones smugly celebrating. Van Basten had scored a hat-trick. Ajax had shown they had moved on. This was humiliation for Cruyff. Not that he saw it that way. "Johan told me that whether you lose 1-0 or 8-2, the points remain the same." Image: Johan Cruyff in UEFA Cup action for Feyenoord against Glenn Hoddle's Tottenham In hindsight, with the game between the teams coming so early in the season, Ajax were benefiting from the legacy left behind. Feyenoord were still learning the ways of Cruyff. "If you saw Johan play football you were already impressed but when you played with him it was unbelievable," says Troost. "In the beginning, it was certainly difficult for many players to get Johan because he does not think one or two steps ahead but three or four." That is how Van Basten remembers it too. "With the years, when you get a little bit more intelligent, the game becomes a little bit easier physically because you are resolving a lot of things in your mind," he explains. "The way that he was playing in his last years was wonderful to watch and very interesting. I played with him and against him, I trained with him. Even then, he made it look so easy." Ajax might have had Van Basten but Feyenoord had quality young players of their own. Ruud Gullit was emerging as one of the country's most promising talents. Soon, he was forming a formidable partnership with Cruyff on the pitch. Feyenoord went 14 unbeaten. By the time of the return meeting in Rotterdam in February, the balance of power had already shifted. Feyenoord had knocked Ajax out of the cup after a replay. But the killing stroke came in front of 58,000 fans at De Kuip as the champions were put to the sword. Gullit opened the scoring early on, Cruyff himself added a second within minutes. When it was all over, Feyenoord had won 4-1 and those Ajax directors were celebrating no more. As Cruyff saw it, Ajax still had good players but Feyenoord had the greater team ethic now. Their movements were coordinated, while their opponents were playing as individuals. "The patterns are over," he said of his old team. "The discipline is gone." They lacked a leader. Cruyff had proven his point. Image: Ajax's Marco van Basten runs at Johan Cruyff and the Feyenoord defence For Troost, who would spend the rest of his career at Feyenoord a one-club man, before taking on the role of commercial director, that season will always hold magical memories. "It was my first championship so it was very special," he says, "but for the people this championship remains very special because of Johan Cruyff and the young Ruud Gullit." The only regret is that it did not last longer. "I learned a lot from Johan and I would certainly have wanted to play football with these men for another year because then my own football career would have turned out differently and I would probably have played more international matches too." There was a point during the season that Cruyff remarked that Feyenoord no longer needed him. He had reshaped things and set them on a new path. With the team flying and on their way to a first title in a decade, it was a charming observation. In this instance, he was wrong. "I already missed him after the first game of the new season," says Troost. Without him, Ajax duly regained the title and it would be almost another full decade before Feyenoord's next Eredivisie success. Long before then, Cruyff had made his peace with his old club, guiding Ajax to more European glory in 1987. Forgiven but not forgotten. His legend only enhanced by his season of revenge. Win £250,000 for free with Super 6! Do not miss your chance to land the £250,000 in Saturday's Super 6 round. Play for free, entries by 3:00pm. Watch Live with NOW TV	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513083
__label__wiki	0.928132	0.928132	TfL extends London minicab driver English Language Requirement deadline to September 2021 Transport for London (TfL) have extended the English Language Requirement deadline to September 2021 for all private hire drivers licensed in the capital. In a ‘Notice’ today announcing the decision to the industry, the capital’s transport regulator cites the ‘significant’ impact caused by COVID-19, as the overriding reason to push back the licensing requirement by a further 12 months. According to Graham Robinson, TfL’s General Manager Taxi and Private Hire, the pandemic has made complying with the English Language Requirement (ELR) more difficult. Drivers have been unable to take a Secure English Language Test (SELT) during recent months owing to the temporary closure of the testing centres. Robinson also recognised that recovering evidence of qualifications has been difficult because many academic institutions have also temporarily closed during the period. Those SELT centres that have recently reopened have also been found to be unable to offer the same number of tests as they were prior to lockdown, owing to the need for social distancing. The pandemic has also had an impact on TfL’s resources. Prior to the pandemic, TfL were exploring alternative ways drivers could demonstrate their English language skills. These plans were put on hold to focus resources on critical licensing activities and supporting the industry throughout the pandemic. In July, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced new statutory standards for taxi and private hire drivers. This includes a requirement for licensing authorities to test English language proficiency for taxi and private hire drivers. Robinson continued: “In light of these factors, we have decided to extend the deadline for compliance with the ELR to 30 September 2021, giving drivers a further twelve months to comply. “Therefore, anyone whose application for a London PHV driver’s licence (including a renewal) that was received by TfL on or after 14 October 2016 has until 30 September 2021 to provide evidence that they comply with the ELR, either by submitting documentary evidence of a qualification or passing a SELT with one of TfL’s appointed providers. “No further action is needed by any licensee or applicant that has submitted satisfactory evidence that they comply with the ELR, whether this takes the form of documentary evidence of a qualification or a certificate from one of TfL’s appointed SELT providers. TfL will contact these licensees or applicants should we need anything further from them. “If a licensee or applicant has not yet provided evidence, they now have until 30 September 2021 to do so. Anyone applying for a new licence, or seeking to renew their licence, on or after 1 October 2021 will need to satisfy the ELR before a licence is granted. “We are currently considering all of the new Statutory Standards announced by the DfT and will make further announcements about how TfL, as the licensing authority, will comply with the new standards.”	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513090
__label__wiki	0.738027	0.738027	Home » Latin America: A stoneworking culture in the mountains of Brazil Latin America: Riding along the two-lane roadways out of the city of Vitoria, Brazil, the numerous cattle farms gradually mix with stoneworking operations. And a tour of the seemingly endless mountain ranges of Espirito Santo clearly shows how this state has been able to provide an extensive range of granite colors to the U.S. market. A recent press tour, organized by Milanez & Milaneze of the Cachoeiro Marble & Granite Fair, offers a sampling of these companies: Granasa Tucked deep within the mountains of northern Espirito Santo is the city of Nova Ven?a, which has a rich tradition in producing natural stone. And this tradition is carried on by companies such as Granasa - Granitos Nacionais Ltda., which quarries Giallo Veneziano granite at a massive quarry on the outskirts of town. Although Granasa has 11 different quarries, the site for Giallo Veneziano - one of the region's best-known materials - is the most important, according to Weverton Robson Zizinho of Granasa. The quarry produces 4,000 cubic meters of this stone per month, and it has been in operation for 20 years. A total of 96 people are working in Nova Ven?a, and as testament to the importance of stoneworking to the community, over 60% of the employees have been there for more than 16 years. In extracting the stone, Granasa can be working up to a total of 14 different sites within the quarry at a single time. The stone is freed with a combination of drilling, blasting and diamond wire saws. Once sections of the quarry are exposed, diamond wire saws are used to free large walls of stone from the quarry face. These large pieces of stone are then broken down into rough blocks with drills. The rough blocks are then delivered from the top of the mountain to the processing plant at the base. Material to be sold as blocks is trimmed on one of several diamond wire saws, while material to be sold as slabs is processed on one of six gangsaws - including two from Gaspari Menotti of Italy and four made by Brazilian firms, MGM and Cimef. A total of 3,000 cubic meters of the monthly production is exported in block form. Blocks are shipped from the Vitoria port, and export targets include the U.S. as well as European destinations. Additionally, 500 cubic meters of material per month is used for sawn slabs, and the rest is fabricated into polished slabs at a plant in Vitoria. In addition to Giallo Veneziano, the company processes blocks of other materials, and it produces 10,000 square meters of these materials per month, all for the domestic market. Looking to the future, the company is taking a number of steps to ensure that the quarry site will be prosperous for years to come. It maintains a large library of core drilling samples from the Giallo Veneziano site as well as other quarries to gauge the direction of future mining. Additionally, the company has taken strides to maintain the ecology of the areas surrounding the quarry and minimize environmental impact. Rocha Branca Also located near Nova Venec? Rocha Branca Minera? Com?io e Exporta? Ltda. operates a quarry for Samoa Light granite. The material has a predominantly yellow tone, although some sections of the quarry also produce a white material. The quarry, which is only two years old, yields a total of 1,900 cubic meters of material per month. To extract the stone, oxygen burners create large vertical channels in the quarry, and diamond wire saws are also used to make smaller vertical cuts. Large sections of the quarry wall are then separated from the quarry face, and they are then formed into blocks. A total of 40 workers are present at the site, and the company is presently working three different areas of the quarry. Most of the production is exported, particularly the yellow material. A major export target is Taiwan, where the granite is used for applications such as kitchen countertops. Marbrasa The ISO 9002 certification achieved by Marbrasa M?ores e Granitos do Brasil Ltda. in Cachoeiro is a benchmark for Brazilian stone companies, as it is the first company in the stone business to receive such an endorsement. The company, which has been in business for 32 years, was recommended for certification by Inmetro (in Brazil) and by ANSI-Rab QMS (in the U.S.) and certified by Bureau Veritas Quality International. Marbrasa is part of the Itapemirim Group, a conglomerate of companies in several segments of business, from farming and cattle raising to tourism, dairy products, lumber and transportation, chaired by noted Brazilian entrepreneur Camilo Cola. The 45,000-square-meter fabrication plant in Cachoeiro has recently undergone a $3.5 million investment program, which increases production capacity to 55,000 square meters per month. New equipment includes eight Barsanti gangsaws from Italy, which are so advanced that they will produce 50% more than the former 30 old gangsaws, according to the company. Slabs are processed on Breton slab-polishing equipment from Italy, and the stone goes directly from the gangsaws to the polishing area to storage by means of automated equipment. The sides of the slabs feature a color-coding pattern that denotes the lot and sequencing of the material. This way, if there is a problem with a slab, the customer and the company can quickly determine exactly where and when the stone was quarried and fabricated. In addition to slabs, the Cachoeiro factory fabricates stone for architectural projects. For this work, the company features advanced machinery such as a Contourbreton NC 120 numerically controlled stoneworking center for cut-to-size pieces and a Comandulli edging machine. Marbrasa has also created a technical department, which works on AutoCAD, for custom projects. Another significant investment has been new equipment for producing tiles. This new machinery, strategically located near the quarries, is designed to produce 40,000 square meters per month, with $8 million invested. The production will be doubled after the first year of installation, according to Marbrasa. Marbrasa's finished products have been used on projects in Italy, Spain, Portugal, the U.S., Canada, the Middle East and several other countries. All of the production in the factories is from blocks produced in the company's quarries. By continually investing in the quarrying process to ensure quality blocks, and by only using their own quarries, they have assurances of quality and availability, according to Marbrasa. The company has a total of 15 quarries, mostly in Espirito Santo, with some others in Bahia for green and yellow varieties. Each quarry produces between 400 and 800 cubic meters per month, depending how much the rainfall hampers quarrying. Materials include Verde Butterfly, Verde Labrador, Acqua Verde and Ouro Brasil. At its quarrying operations, Marbrasa has also shown concern for the surrounding landscape, as it employs a team of environmental consultants to treat the quarrying areas with a mixture of biofertilizers and seeds, which are blown into the air by a tanker truck that once belonged to the Brazilian Army. Additionally, a press filter enables the company to process the slurry from the gangsaws, separating it into recycled water and solid material which is compacted into small filter cake blocks. This replaces the old sedimentation ponds, and eases transport of waste. To ensure the long-term success of its work force, Marbrasa's employees are eligible to take part in a comprehensive yearly program of training, updating and professional qualification courses. Additionally, the company has created a school, in cooperation with the state government, which is expected to graduate 80 employees this year who had not yet completed high school. Students are released early from their work from Monday through Friday to attend classes. Mag-Ban Mag-Ban M?res e Granitos Aquidaban Ltda. is a 12-year-old firm based in Cachoeiro de Itapemirim. The company owns 15 quarries in Espirito Santo and in Minas Gerais, and it has a processing plant with 60 workers in Cachoeiro. The company is 12 years old, and it has six Cimef gangsaws at the location in Cachoeiro, with two others at the quarries. Slab polishing equipment is from MGM, a domestic firm, although the electronic controls for the machine are made in Italy. The company polishes a total of 18,000 square meters of material per month, and Mag-Ban has a strict quality control program to monitor color consistency and cracking, according to Tales Pena Machada of Mag-Ban. In the near future, the company is planning more machinery additions. It is currently investing in a new edge polisher as well as new equipment for producing cut-to-size material. According to Machado, Mag-Ban's main competition comes from Spain and Italy. As a result, the company is continually looking for new exotic materials with a wavy surface or crystals not found in European materials. Recently, it discovered a new red granite variety, which it has begun processing. In addition to new and exotic stones, the company also produces the classic materials of Brazil. To show visiting customers the true color of blocks in the storage yard, the material is power washed on a regular basis. The company has been exporting its products for over five years. In addition to the U.S., export targets include Australia, Asia, Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela. Jacigua Established in 1979, Jacigua Group is an export-driven company located in Cachoeiro de Itapemirim. A quarrier as well as a fabricator, the company specializes in the sale of finished slabs to the international market. Block processing begins on gangsaws from Cimef, and the slabs are polished on machinery from Breton of Italy. A leading material for the company is Amarelo Icarai, although the green granites are also important, according to Joao B. Dalvi of Jacigua. For example, the company produces a green material called, Verde Ecologia, and Jacigua is also launching a new granite variety called Verde Agata. While most of the company's business is slab sales, it also deals in tiles, according to Dalvi, and it is starting to look to the U.S. market as an export target. The fabricator works with five other companies in Cachoeiro and one in Sao Paulo to form Millennium, an export company. The companies, Cajugram, Sigma do Brasil, Qualita, Jacigua, Itapoama and Gran Marcal, have also built a 4,000-square-meter pavilion in Vitoria with displays of their products for architects, builders and contractors. Overall production of the Millennium Group is 100,000 square meters per month, Dalvi said. With an eye on the environment, the company is planting new trees and other vegetation in the land surrounding its plant. It is also creating a man-made lake near the fabricating facility. Antolini opens huge state-of-the-art plant in Brazil A model of consistency in Brazil Nearly Two Decades of Growth in Brazil Distinctive granite from the quarries of Brazil	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513096
__label__wiki	0.505102	0.505102	February 12, 2003 / Spring 2003 / Issue 30 (originally published by Booz & Company) Creating Chaos for Fun and Profit In a turbulent industry environment, make your way to the eye of the hurricane. by Chuck Lucier and Jan Dyer Torsilieri Companies, managers, and workers face increasing risks as they strive to meet today’s extraordinary performance expectations. There are the familiar economic risks endemic to capitalism, including speculative bubbles, the business cycle, and fraud — plus the political risks of terrorism, war, and shifting government policies. But these conventional hazards have been amplified. As Joseph Schumpeter foresaw, extraordinary performance by the economy requires the destruction of companies that are slow to adapt. Today, Schumpeter’s gales of creative destruction have intensified to hurricane force, overturning established industry patterns, sweeping CEOs from office, and threatening jobs, even in the once-protected executive ranks of the world’s biggest companies. Traditional management strategies — hunkering down behind a few defensible competitive barriers, or avoiding the regions of frequent storms — are blown away by this hurricane. Major companies fail with increasing frequency, eliminating workers’ jobs and often their retirement savings. Of the 1,000 companies with the highest stock market value in 1992, 380 fell from the list a decade later because of bankruptcy, acquisition, or declining market value. In the 1,000 largest companies in North America, the frequency of CEO turnover increased from 10 percent per year in 1995 to 16 percent per year in 2000 and 2001. (See “Why CEOs Fall: The Causes and Consequences of Turnover at the Top,” by Chuck Lucier, Eric Spiegel, and Rob Schuyt, s+b, Third Quarter 2002.) The increase in CEO turnover was even more rapid in Europe and Australia. Such departures are often preceded by significant and painful losses for investors, the firing of senior executives, and employee layoffs. People are frequently left without the support of mentors because many experienced personnel lose their jobs. Does this turmoil mean that the upward pressure on performance has gone too far? We don’t think so. Fifteen years ago, complacent CEOs could be satisfied with delivering the market’s expectations, confident that a friendly board of directors would allow them to remain in office. For example, in 1987 the CEO of a then leading (now bankrupt) steel company told us that he wouldn’t launch an aggressive counterattack on the Nucor Corporation because it was too risky. “I play golf every weekend with the three former CEOs of my company, and I couldn’t look them in the eye if we tried something like that and it failed,” he said. Today, because of the power of the investor, complacent CEOs presiding over the steady decline of public corporations are an endangered species. Between better-performing companies taking over weaker firms and boards of directors exercising their fiduciary responsibility to investors, CEOs unable to improve their company’s performance have no place to hide. That a few CEOs cheat because they can’t meet the market’s exacting demands shouldn’t surprise us any more than the fact that some students cheat on tough exams. Cheating by a few companies shouldn’t blind us to the extraordinary efforts and success of the people at the vast majority of companies who are creating superior returns for their shareholders. So how are these companies avoiding the turbulence and achieving better and better performance? They are placing themselves in the eye of the storm, both sheltered from and managing the creative destruction in their industries. In the computer industry, Hewlett-Packard Company and Gateway Inc. are buffeted by the tumultuous conditions created by the Dell Computer Corporation. The post–September 11, 2001, downturn in the airline industry, which has already pushed United Airlines Inc. into Chapter 11, threatens American Airlines Inc. far more than Southwest Airlines Company. The Storm Is Here to Stay Defending the limited role the Federal Reserve Board played during the irrational exuberance of the dot boom–dot bomb bubble, Chairman Alan Greenspan observed that the United States made the choice “between economic growth with associated potential instability and a more civil … way of life with a lower standard of living and chose the former.” In short, collectively, we understand we’re better off with higher returns despite the greater risks because we benefit from increasing productivity, more rapid growth, faster creation of new jobs, and a better standard of living. No one likes risk. However, increased risk is integral to the higher level of performance that all of a company’s stakeholders — investors, workers, customers, and business partners — demand, and many companies are delivering. During the decade from 1992 to 2001, including the current recession and the bear market, the median above-average performer (75th percentile) grew earnings by 18.3 percent per year and revenue by 11.7 percent. Exhibit 1 shows the earnings and revenue growth rates of each quintile of the S&P 1000 during this period. To estimate the impact of improper accounting, we eliminated the companies that have subsequently made very large adjustments to their earnings and revenue, including Adelphia Communications, CMS Energy, Enron, Qwest Communications, Tyco, and WorldCom. The adjustment reduced the growth rate of earnings of the above-average performers by only one percentage point. Since the annual growth rate of the U.S. economy during the 1992-to-2001 period was only 5.4 percent and the global economy 5.1 percent, companies with above-average performance for shareholders grew revenue more than twice as fast as the economy and earnings more than three times as fast. These extraordinary rates of growth aren’t the anomalous result of the long expansion during the 1990s, the bull market, or accounting irregularities: Above-average performers have grown both earnings and revenue much faster than the economy since at least the mid-1980s. Companies that are top performers for investors also create superior value for customers and employees. Dell, pioneer in affordable computers and among the top 1 percent of performers for shareholders during the 1992-to-2001 period despite a slowdown in computer sales, grew its revenues by 43 percent, its earnings by 38 percent, and the number of employees by 30 percent. Michael Dell, CEO since he founded the company in 1984, is one of the longest-tenured CEOs of a major publicly traded corporation, and one of the richest men in the United States. Lowe’s Companies Inc., the building products retailer that lost its industry leadership to The Home Depot Inc. a decade ago, is now growing faster. Led by 39-year veteran Robert Tillman, Lowe’s was in the top 5 percent of performers for shareholders from 1992 to 2001, growing earnings by 65 percent per year, and revenue and number of employees by 22 percent. The growth of the public equity markets and the expansion of private equity markets linked to the public markets (e.g., leveraged buyout and venture-capital investments that are cashed out in the public markets) drive extraordinary business performance because equity investors breed improvements in performance like oceans breed hurricanes. Since the price that an investor pays reflects a company’s expected future performance, a company that merely meets the market’s expectations yields average or below-average returns for its investors. To produce above-average returns for shareholders, companies must surprise the market with better performance. Each improvement is quickly reflected in the stock price, so above-average returns require an additional improvement in performance for tomorrow’s shareholders, and another for investors who purchase the stock next week, and so forth. This ratcheting up of company performance, replicated across the economy, increases the expectations of stakeholders and raises the bar of performance for all companies. The breadth of the investor constituency in the United States ensures the ascendance of the investor view. And as long as regulations ensure a fair game for small investors and fraud is punished, a Marxist class war between owners and workers is unlikely. Politically, “investors” include the American middle class and most elected officials. For example, in a 1998 survey (its most recently published), the Federal Reserve found that 48.8 percent of households are equity investors, either directly through stock or mutual fund ownership or indirectly through individually directed retirement accounts like IRAs or Keoghs. Stock ownership extends broadly across income distribution, including 52.7 percent of families with annual incomes of only $25,000 to $50,000. The Eye Strategy The best returns for investors, with only moderate risk attached, are found in the companies that combine operational excellence — consistently outstanding performance for customers that’s brought to the bottom line — with sustained rapid growth. Operational excellence is a necessity today. Investors mercilessly punish companies that fail to meet these expectations. Deal makers and industry visionaries (like Tyco’s Dennis Kozlowski and Vivendi’s Jean-Marie Messier) don’t deliver results to shareholders. It’s the great operators who do. But operational excellence isn’t enough. From 1992 to 2001, for example, U.S. companies Sara Lee, Masco, Genuine Parts, and Sonoco Products all sustained attractive returns on assets and economic value added and grew with their industry, but they produced below-average returns for investors since they only met the market’s expectations. Above-average performers must also sustain double-digit revenue growth. Companies that sustain double-digit growth in earnings and revenue are found across the economy: in low-growth industries (General Dynamics, Harley-Davidson, and Lowe’s) and high-growth ones (Intel, Medtronic, and Oracle); in low-margin industries (consider Cardinal Health, Devry, and Gentex) and high-margin ones (think of Citigroup, Microsoft, and Starbucks). Building upon a 30 to 50 percent advantage in the performance that matters most to customers, these companies face only moderate risks because they control their future. They have to “merely” sustain their performance advantage and find sufficient market opportunities to sustain their extraordinary growth. Most of these high-return, moderate-risk companies are in the eye of Schumpeter’s hurricane, reshaping not only their own industry, but also adjacent industries. For example, the success of Home Depot and Lowe’s has transformed the formerly fragmented $100 billion home improvement retail industry, eliminated the home center retail industry, collapsed the lumberyard channel, and forced every building-products manufacturer to change its marketing strategy. Similarly, Dell continues to drive its superior direct-to-the-customer approach into contiguous product segments such as networked storage systems (together with the EMC Corporation), printers (including private labeling of Lexmark International Inc.), and resale of hardware and software branded by other companies (including Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod). Threatened by Dell’s expansion, Hewlett-Packard Company, Cisco Systems Inc., and the 3Com Corporation all recently terminated their resale arrangements. The next rounds of this competition will reshape the printer and network equipment industries. Although an eye-of-the-hurricane strategy carries only moderate risk once it’s successful, how many companies are destroyed in their attempt to move inside and create superior operational performance and rapid growth? Because it’s so much easier to identify companies that succeeded than those that failed, it’s impossible to pinpoint the risk of an eye-of-the-hurricane strategy. However, our best judgment is that the risks are much less than they appear. First, our research suggests that few successful “eye strategies” are risky ideas that are new to the world: Most companies prosper by applying successful ideas taken from other industries to their own industry. Power retailing is a great example. Developed by Toys “R” Us Inc. in the 1950s, power retailing has transformed at least 15 other industries. Forty years later, during the 1992-to-2001 decade, three of the companies in the top 5 percent of performance for shareholders were power retailers (Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., Best Buy Co. Inc., and Lowe’s). Second, even when they err, eye-of-the-hurricane strategies still create superior long-term returns for investors. Despite the failure of its effort to sell through retailers, Dell has been a superior investment in every decade since the company was founded. Oxford Health Plans Inc. was in the top 10 percent of companies in returns to shareholders during the 1992-to-2001 period, despite losing control of its business in the mid-1990s, despite the retirement of its founder, and despite a painful restructuring that eventually reestablished Oxford as a top performer. Finally, since investors reward improvements, a company creates superior returns immediately as it moves toward the eye of the hurricane. IBM under Louis V. Gerstner is an outstanding case. Mr. Gerstner’s “solutions thrust” (another idea that’s provided the strategic platform for companies in more than a dozen industries) gave instant benefits to customers struggling with systems integration, connected IBM’s businesses to a series of growth markets, produced earnings growth of 14 percent per year between 1994 and 2001, and generated above-average returns for its shareholders. Does an eye-of-the-hurricane strategy offer the best combination of return and risk? It may. We know the strategy of large acquisitions is clearly worse: On average it yields poor returns for the acquiring company’s investors and has high risks. For an established company, a strategy focused just on operational excellence has a poor return/risk profile. Operational excellence can be a successful strategy in only about one-third of industries where a favorable industry environment (e.g., a long bull market for investment firms) so increases the revenue and earnings growth of excellent operators that they can earn above-average returns for shareholders, longer tenure for CEOs, and greater opportunities for workers. In a second third of industries, an unfavorable industry environment causes the performance of even excellent operators to be unacceptably low and stimulates the replacement of the CEO. In the final third of industries, the performance that investors expect results in average or below-average returns to shareholders. Unfortunately, since it’s impossible to predict whether the industry environment will be favorable or unfavorable, an operational excellence strategy has a two-thirds chance of producing substandard returns for investors. Furthermore, with a strategy of operational excellence, companies, employees, and, increasingly, managers consign their fate to factors beyond their control, such as interest rates, the stock market, and oil prices. With an eye-of-the-hurricane strategy, a company can retain control. Chuck Lucier, chuck@chucklucier.com Chuck Lucier is senior vice president emeritus of Booz Allen Hamilton. He is currently writing a book and consulting on strategy and knowledge issues with selected clients. For Mr. Lucier’s latest publications, see www.chucklucier.com. Jan Dyer, janet.dyer@ptsem.edu Jan Dyer spent the last 11 years at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she served as the firm’s director of intellectual capital and worked with corporations in a variety of industries. She specializes in the strategic application of knowledge and learning. Topics: board, pricing, strategy, terrorism, retirement	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513097
__label__wiki	0.734989	0.734989	HomeAround the worldHaiti gripped by protests Haiti gripped by protests October 12, 2019 John Parker On Oct. 4, a demonstration of many, many thousands marched on the U.N. headquarters in Haiti. Photo: Haïti Liberté After 15 years of a military occupation of Haiti, the United Nations “peacekeeping” force will close operations on Oct.15. Growing protests now gripping Haiti began last year in reaction to the announcement by President Jovenel Moïse’s government of up to 50 percent increases in fuel prices. Protests have shut down businesses, airports and legislative buildings. The UN.org website says: “The current U.N. peacekeeping mission closes on 15 October 2019 and will be replaced by a political mission, building on the progress made with the Haitian authorities to reinforce stability, security and governance as well as the rule of law and human rights.” According to the publication Dominican Today, the Dominican Republic requested a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Oct. 3 to encourage a continuation of the U.N. presence. Dominican Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas stressed his government’s support for Haiti’s “democratically elected” President Jovenel Moïse. “What we see there [in Haiti] these days would seem routine, but it is unacceptable for countries such as those represented in the Security Council, who believe in dialogue, the rule of law and the scrupulous observation of human rights,” Vargas said in a statement. Both the U.N. statement and Foreign Minister Vargas’ concern for maintaining “the rule of law” run in the face of the killing of hundreds of protesters by the Haitian government and paramilitary forces who were enforcing “the rule of law.” Rules and laws, like everywhere, serve class interests and the representatives of the ruling class in Haiti, who held rigged elections with the assistance of the U.S. and other imperialist supporters of the Moïse government. They use the U.N. to maintain their dictatorial and brutal rein on the Haitian people, especially in the interests of U.S. imperialism. It’s interesting that on Oct. 4, the day after the special meeting of the Security Council, thousands upon thousands of people protested at the U.N. headquarters in Haiti. According to the publication Haïti Liberté: “A gargantuan demonstration of many, many thousands marched from the capital’s Nazon/Delmas Roads intersection (the traditional starting point these days) to the U.N. headquarters in Haiti. The demonstrators’ message: no more foreign military occupation, no more foreign meddling, stop supporting the Moïse regime.” On Oct. 7, Haïti Liberté reported another killing of a protester by government supported thugs. In addition to voter fraud, brutality and assassinations, the Moïse government has been saddled with continuing corruption charges where billions of dollars have been pocketed by officials. Four billion dollars in Petrocaribe loans given by Venezuela to Haiti for social service relief programs wound up in the pockets of government officials and members of parliament. Both the Nicolás Maduro and Hugo Chávez governments in Venezuela tried to assist the Haitian people with debt forgiveness and continued relief efforts, but met a wall of corruption by a government propped up by the U.S. In fact, the Moïse government was given a lifeline when it–like other Organization of American States countries that voted last January under pressure from the U.S. — helped pass a resolution no longer recognizing the genuinely elected Maduro government of Venezuela. Haiti and Venezuela The imperialist assault on Haiti by the U.S. is linked to its assault on Venezuela, but neither Republicans nor Democrats want that connection to be seen. In Miami, at a town hall meeting on Oct. 3 hosted by U.S. Representative Frederica Wilson, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and six Haitian panelists, Pelosi made that clear, responding to the Haitian panelists. As reported by Haïti Liberté: “The meeting began with mostly vapid politician remarks by Pelosi, Wilson, Monestime and Joseph. But then it erupted (much to Pelosi’s discomfort) into a trial of and outcry against U.S. policy in Haiti.” After indictment upon indictment of the U.S. for supporting weapons and rigged elections and imperialism in general against the Haitian people, Carline Paul, one of the panelists, felt empowered to speak and charged that the Trump administration “is supporting Jovenel Moïse for voting [at the OAS] against [President Nicolás] Maduro in Venezuela.” Washington “didn’t like it, because Venezuela has helped Haiti” and then the Haitian government was “forced to vote against Venezuela.” “The United States is telling them: Don’t get in contact with China. Don’t get in contact with Venezuela. Don’t get in contact with so and so,” she said, concluding that “Trump, in the background, is supporting Jovenel Moïse; the people of Haiti say no interference … no more support for Jovenel Moïse as president of Haiti.” Pelosi made a floundering and desperate defense of the policy of Trump and the Democrats in Venezuela, while dismissing the vital aid Venezuela sent to Haiti to save Haitian lives: “You’ve been candid, and I’m going to be candid,” Pelosi lied. “Maduro is a thug, so I’m not taking any respect for what Maduro might be doing in Haiti [sic]. I’m glad that there may be some benefit, but I’m not … erasing the injustices, the horror, the killings that he is doing in Venezuela because he is part of spreading a global and certainly a hemispheric exporting corruption and the rest [sic] … Not to get involved in a full-fledged discussion about Maduro, but I can’t leave a meeting where you’re saying … I cannot let my view of Maduro go unspoken in a group of this kind.” According to the article in Haïti Liberté, the room remained stonily silent. According to the Haiti Action Committee Facebook page reporting on acts of solidarity with the people of Haiti, there were militant protests in San Jose, Calif. “As part of this week of action in solidarity with Haiti that spanned from California to Montreal, South Bay students, teachers, human rights and community activists held a march and rally in downtown San Jose, California, today in solidarity with the uprising of the Haitian people demanding an end to U.S. support for dictatorship and death squads in Haiti. As the rally drew to a close, six Haiti activists blocked the entrance to the Federal Building, representative of the U.S. government, chanting: ‘Stop massacres in Haiti!’ ” Also last week, as heat from Haiti hits politicians and officials here in the U.S., it’s also hitting other imperialists complicit in the corruption and state violence in Haiti. Reported on the Facebook page of the Haiti Action Committee: “On Monday, 15 Haitian community members and allies occupied Justin Trudeau’s election office for a little over three hours. The Solidarité Québec-Haiti #Petrochallenge 2019 activists called on the PM to withdraw Canada’s backing of a repressive, corrupt and illegitimate president of Haiti. Trudeau’s government has provided financial, policing and diplomatic support to Jovenel Moïse, whose presidency is dependent on Washington, Ottawa and other members of the Core Group.” What’s needed now here in the U.S. is more pressure on both the Democrats and Republicans, whose policies run counter to the interests of the people of Haiti, Venezuela and the world.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513098
__label__wiki	0.980696	0.980696	Appointed By Rhyme Graeme Wood reviews a book about the country in its post-apartheid era: Trevor Manuel, the South African finance minister from 1996 to 2009, got his job when the aging Nelson Mandela asked, at a cabinet meeting, who was a good economist. Mr. Manuel raised his hand thinking Mr. Mandela had asked who was "a good communist." Mr. Manuel served his country ably. But the appointment of the sole competent minister in the first government of African National Congress was a matter of blind luck. This will hardly come as a surprise to anyone who has followed R.W. Johnson's reporting. The South Africa correspondent for the (London) Sunday Times and a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books, Mr. Johnson has been a prolific critic of the ANC's 16-year tenure in power. "South Africa's Brave New World," his political history of the post- apartheid era, amounts to a book-length indictment of the ANC. Its leaders come through as so corrupt, lecherous and violent that governance is not even an afterthought. "If we didn't dine with thugs and crooks," says one to Mr. Johnson, "then we'd always eat alone." The book is a catalog of sins and rumors (footnoted, though often attributed to private sources or, for example, "old girlfriends" of ANC members). It is big and disorganized but filled with credible gossiplike the Trevor Manuel storyand therefore a delight.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513101
__label__wiki	0.869061	0.869061	A Hero: Vladka Meed, RIP Jeffrey Goldberg Vladka Meed, who smuggled weapons into the Warsaw Ghetto and, after improbably surviving the Shoah, made sure we remembered what had happened, has died. It was my great honor to have met her on a number of occasions. She was the definition of heroism. We have entered a period, sadly, in which the last Holocaust survivors, and the last veterans of World War II, are dying. I'm trying to make it a priority to meet more of them -- and introduce them to my children -- before they're all gone. Here's The Times on Meed: Mrs. Meed's resistance work started with the deportation of 265,000 Jews from Warsaw to the Treblinka death camp and continued after the uprising by the ghetto's besieged remnants. She told her story in Yiddish in her 1948 book, "On Both Sides of the Wall," one of the first published eyewitness accounts. It was translated into English, German and at least three other languages, is still in print, and was a central source of the 2001 television movie "Uprising." When the Germans walled off a portion of Warsaw, she was still a teenager. Working as a machine operator sewing Nazi uniforms, she grew increasingly dejected watching the deportations in 1942 that included her mother, a 13-year-old brother and a married sister. But she responded resourcefully to a call for armed resistance. With her brownish hair and prominent cheekbones, she could pose as a gentile, so the Jewish underground asked her to live on the Christian side of the wall and become a courier. Born Feigele Peltel on Dec. 29, 1921, she took the Polish nickname Vladka. Women were often preferred as couriers, she said in a 1983 interview. "If a man in the underground went on a mission, he could be recognized as a Jew by his circumcision," she said. "A woman's body might be searched, but it could not give that information." She was soon buying bullets, pistols, even dynamite, and carrying them, as well as money and essential information, to the Jewish side of the wall. Sometimes she became part of a Polish ghetto work detail, sometimes she bribed her way across and sometimes she clambered over the wall. With death all but certain, she once recalled, "there was very little left to fear." Several times, she smuggled Jewish children out of the ghetto and into the homes of sympathetic Christian families. According to Michael Berenbaum, a leading Holocaust scholar, she helped pass on to the Polish underground the startling news about Treblinka -- that trains filled with Jews were returning empty, that no food was being shipped and that there was an omnipresent stench of corpses. Jeffrey Goldberg is the editor in chief of The Atlantic and a recipient of the National Magazine Award for Reporting. He is the author of Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror. Connect Facebook Twitter	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513102
__label__wiki	0.948076	0.948076	Movie ListTV List All Upcoming Ralph Macchio Movies and TV Shows Ragesh Dipu Ralph Macchio is always sure of what he wants from life. As his character Daniel LaRusso says in the recently released trailer of the upcoming series ‘Cobra Kai,’ ”Balance, is my thing.” When he was 16, Macchio had to choose between a beach party and an audition one day. Without a second thought, he sent an actor aspirant friend as Ralph Macchio to the audition while the real Macchio went straight to the beach party. Born in Huntington, Long Island, New York, in 1961, Macchio started his dance lessons at the age of 3. When he was performing on the stage at the age of 16, Macchio was discovered by an agent. He started attending the audition with the help of the agent, but never took his acting career on a serious note. The half-hearted actor landed the lead role for the TV series ‘Eight is Enough.’ Macchio’s intense portrayal of the character Jeremy Andretti catapulted him as an instant heartthrob. The immense popularity and fan following among teenagers helped him to secure a major role in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 movie, ‘The Outsiders.’ Macchio played the character of Johnny Cade alongside Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, and Matt Dillon. In 1984, Macchio got his big break in the role of Daniel LaRusso in ‘The Karate Kid.’ The character became his most popular role till date and triggered his rise to stardom in the mid-80s. But his boyish charm and innocent face cramped his gradual growth into a matured star. He struggled to find challenging roles and ended with box office flops in a row. With his acting career sliding down, Ralph Macchio turned into theatre and made his off-Broadway debut in ‘Cuba and His Teddy Bear’ with Robert De Niro in 1986. The success of the show led to his next off-Broadway show, ‘Only Kidding’ in 1989. Soon, Macchio landed in Broadway. History repeated when he tasted a mammoth success in the 1992 movie with ‘My Cousin Vinny,’ alongside Marisa Tomei and Joe Pesci. Despite the huge success, Macchio once again lost the opportunity to use the blockbuster as his launching pad. But he held on to acting with small TV appearances. Macchio’s third big break came when he competed on the 12th season of ABC’s dance competition show, ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ and finished fourth. Soon, projects including ‘American Gypsies,’ a National Geographic documentary, ‘He’s Way More Famous Than You’ and ‘Hitchcock,’ an Alfred Hitchcock biopic, followed. At last, his 1984 cult action classic turned to the actor’s rescue. The movie revived as a YouTube Premium series in the name ‘Cobra Kai,’ with Macchio reprising his iconic role. At this point, the question that might be circling your mind is what is the next Ralph Macchio movie or TV show? Well, the good news is that we have a clear answer to that question. Here’s the list of upcoming Ralph Macchio films/TV shows scheduled to release in 2019 and 2020. We can only hope that the latest Ralph Macchio movies would be as good as some of his recent ones. 2. The Deuce (2017 – ) HBO’s drama ‘The Deuce‘ is an intense take on the ’70s adult film industry in New York City. The series explores a dark and turbulent world of the sex trade, which includes streetwalking prostitutes, windowless parlous, corrupt cops, activists, politicians, neon-lit bars, diners, and many more. ‘The Deuce’ centers on the porn industry in New York’s Times Square from the early ’70s through the mid-80s. The series unfolds in the backdrop of historical events like the legalization and subsequent rise of prostitution in the area. The sex trade flourished until HIV emerged as a nightmare and the violence of cocaine addiction crossed all the limits. Eventually, the real estate tycoons replaced porn studios and prostitutes. Macchio plays Officer Haddix, an exhausted cop fed up with the system. He deals with pimps, porn and hookers while sporting sideburns and smoking every time he shows up on screen. In September 2018, HBO renewed the series for a third and final season. James Franco plays the twin brothers while Maggie Gyllenhaal is cast as a prostitute-turned-filmmaker Eileen ‘Candy’ Merrell. Reports also suggest that season 3 is expected to time jump into the mid-’80s. Earlier, the second season saw a time jump from 1971 to 1977. Though no official date has been announced so far, the third season of ‘The Deuce,’ which is created by George Pelecanos and David Simon, is expected to air in 2019. Read More: Upcoming Idris Elba Movies 1. Cobra Kai (2018 – ) ‘Cobra Kai’ is one of the most unlikely series in TV history. The iconic show returned after almost 35 years to play two successful seasons on YouTube Premium. Actors Ralph Macchio and William Zabka, who played the arch-rivals in the 1984 flick ‘The Karate Kid,’ returns for a final showdown with the series ‘Cobra Kai.’ To the surprise of viewers and critics alike, the series went on to become a hit with 50 million views for the first season. ‘Cobra Kai‘ focuses on the titular rogue karate school and often rekindles the classic big-screen martial arts rivalry featured in ‘The Karate Kid’ between Daniel LaRusso, played by Ralph Macchio, and Johnny Lawrence, played by William Zabka. The YouTube series also introduces the second generation of students who are getting ready to test their martial arts skills in the All-Valley Championships grudge match. ‘Cobra Kai’ picks up three decades after the original movie’s climactic showdown. The series is written and executive produced by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. Heald, Hurwitz and Schlossberg direct the series. Season 2 premieres on April 24 on YouTube Premium. Read More: Upcoming Bruce Willis Movies	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513103
__label__cc	0.514264	0.485736	Movie GuideNews Where to Stream Terminator 2: Judgement Day? Shuvrajit Das Biswas Sequels usually have giant shoes to fill if the first part has been a success. Thus, when ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’, or simply ‘T2’ came out in 1991, the movie had its work cut out. James Cameron returned to helm the film that brought back Arnold Schwarzenegger as the titular character. However, the film was in the pipelines for a long time since the technology required to make the movie according to Cameron’s vision was not that well-developed. When it did come out, however, ‘T2’ made it clear that it was worth the wait and blew everyone’s mind. In fact, at the time of release, it had a budget of $102 million, making it the most expensive movie of the time. Thankfully, the film spoke for itself and critics and audiences all went gaga over it. People touted it as being even better than the first installment, with specific praise being heaped on the visual effects, cast performances, and action sequences. ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’ has gone on to become an indispensable part of pop culture that gave us lines like “Hasta la vista, baby”. Naturally, you must be wondering where to watch this iconic science fiction action movie, or you might want to rewatch this unforgettable installment in the ‘Terminator‘ franchise. Either way, we have you covered as we tell you where you can watch ‘T2’. However, first, let us walk you through the plot. What is Terminator 2: Judgement Day About? While we saw the Terminator rushing to kill John’s mother, Sarah, in the first movie, the role is reversed now, as the Terminator must protect John. We see that some time has passed and John lives with his foster parents. His mother has been training him all his childhood to prepare for Judgement Day, which is when Skynet takes over. However, Sarah has now been locked up for trying to bomb a computer factory. We see that Skynet sends another Terminator from 2029, to kill John this time. The model is T-1000 and is made of liquid metal, allowing it to take the shape of any object, which also allows it to turn its own arms into blades and other weapons. The rebel leader John, from the future, also sends back a reprogrammed T-800 (the original Terminator) to protect the kid John. T-1000 kills and takes the form of a police officer and almost manages to capture John, but T-800 intervenes and the two manage to escape on a bike. When John discovers that T-800 is compelled to follow his orders, he instructs him to rescue his mother, fearing that T-1000 might kill her to get to John. Initially, Sarah is unwilling to trust T-800, considering the ordeal she went through when she first met him. However, they soon understand the value of working together when they witness the ruthlessness of T-1000. Sarah decides to track down the man responsible for making Skynet, believing that if she kills him she can stop the apocalyptic future. However, she does not have the heart to kill the man in cold blood. T-1000 attacks once again, and the law enforcement agents get involved. Sarah, John, and T-800 somehow manage to pull off the mission of destroying all of the scientist’s research, effectively preventing the future Skynet from being created. This does not solve their current problem in any way since T-1000 is still after them. A confrontation takes place in a steel mill where the T-1000 is initially frozen using liquid nitrogen and shattered. However, the machine reassembles itself. T-800 and T-1000 break out in a violent fight, where the latter gets the better of the former since it is a more advanced model. It almost shuts down T-800 but the machine comes back to life using emergency power, in one of the most iconic scenes in the film. Just when T-1000 is about to kill Sarah and John, T-800 blasts it into a vat of molten steel with a grenade launcher. The machine also realizes that it must destroy itself to prevent Skynet from being formed and despite John’s orders, it lowers itself into the same vat. The movie ends with Sarah and John hopeful about the future for the first time. They seem to be touched with the way the machine apparently learned from human values, and have refreshed views on human lives themselves. Now, without much ado, let us tell you where you can watch ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’. Is Terminator 2: Judgement Day on Netflix? Netflix has an amazing collection of movies that sets it apart as a premier content provider. While ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’ is not on the platform, you can check out ‘Under the Skin‘ which is a story about a deadly otherworldly creature using her womanly allures to draw in and kill men. Is Terminator 2: Judgement Day on Hulu? Hulu is probably one of the best platforms to be a part of due to its varied content. While ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’ is not on the platform, you can check out ‘Annihilation‘, which tells the story of how alien life often combats and rejects human existence to further their own goals. Is Terminator 2: Judgement Day on Amazon Prime? Amazon Prime is the closest competitor to Netflix in terms of content, but it has one-upped its competitor here. ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’ might not be on the platform, but you can check out the first ‘Terminator‘ movie here. Where Can I Stream Terminator 2: Judgement Day Online? If you want to watch ‘T2’ elsewhere, you can head to YouTube, Vudu or FandangoNow, where you can rent or buy and watch the movie. It costs $2.99 and $3.99 to rent the SD and HD versions on YouTube and FandangoNow. You can buy it on Vudu for $6.99. Can I Stream Terminator 2: Judgement Day Online For Free? Sorry freeloaders, but there is no way to watch ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’ for free. Moreover, we recommend paying for all the art you consume. Read More: Terminator 2: Judgement Day Ending, Explained	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513104
__label__wiki	0.922914	0.922914	Facebook has removed a video of President Trump spouting baseless claims of election fraud as his supporters violently stormed the US Capitol January 6, 2021 Allana Akhtar Uncategorized Comments Off on Facebook has removed a video of President Trump spouting baseless claims of election fraud as his supporters violently stormed the US Capitol Trump supporters gather outside the U.S. Capitol building following a "Stop the Steal" rally on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC Spencer Platt/Getty Images Facebook has removed a video showing President Donald Trump spouting baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. Facebook's vice president of Integrity Guy Rosen said on Twitter that the firm removed it "because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence." Trump's video was released after violent pro-Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol, and many called for the president to demand that they retreat. He said they should "go home" in the video. Twitter first attached a warning label to the video saying that it cannot be liked or retweeted "due to a risk of violence." Trump's tweet featuring the video was later unavailable. Facebook has removed a video of President Donald Trump in which he spouted more baseless claims of election fraud. A recorded video was released of Trump in which he asked a group of his violent supporters to "go home" as they violently sieged the US Capitol on Wednesday. However, the majority of the video contained more of the false, baseless claims of a fraudulent 2020 presidential election that Trump has been repeating. Facebook did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment, but Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice president of integrity, said on Twitter that "this is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump's video. We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence." The Electoral College confirmed in December that Trump indeed lost the election and that President-elect Joe Biden would be sworn into office on January 20. Lawmakers had gathered at the US Capitol on Wednesday to certify the results when violent pro-Trump extremists stormed the doors. Twitter first attached a warning label to the post reading: "This claim of election fraud is disputed, and this Tweet can't be replied to, Retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence." The tweet featuring the video is now unavailable, but it's unclear if Twitter took direct action against the president's account. Both Facebook and Twitter have faced instances like this often in 2020 as the platforms sought to crack down on misinformation related to the 2020 presidential election, misleading information that was commonly spread by Trump himself. In May, for example, Twitter opted to fact-check Trump's tweet in which he said that mail-in voting will be "substantially fraudulent" and will lead to a "Rigged Election." Twitter users earlier today called for the platform to suspend Trump's account, including actor Josh Gad and a former political advisor to President George W. Bush. Trump has been afforded certain protections on Twitter because of the firm's policies for world leaders since, according to the firm, what they say lies within the public's interest, even if they violate guidelines. The scene at the US Capitol Wednesday descended into insurrection when pro-Trump rioters breached the federal building's doors and sauntered through offices of officials like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Lawmakers were evacuated, and a woman who was shot in the chest inside the Capitol has died. Senate aides were able to rescue boxes that contained the electoral votes for the 2020 election before they evacuated the Capitol. Those votes are legally required for Congress to be able to finally affirm Biden's win. The pro-Trump attempted coup is the first time the US Capitol has been breached by a large, violent mob since the War of 1812.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513105
__label__wiki	0.981298	0.981298	Lizzi Marriott mourned at vigil in Westboro By Thomas Caywood and Linda Bock TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF Oct 14, 2012 at 12:36 AM Oct 14, 2012 at 2:01 PM On the day New Hampshire authorities announced that his missing daughter had been murdered, allegedly at the hands of an aspiring actor she knew, Robert E. Marriott stood outside on a cold evening, illumnated in the swaying orange light of hundreds of candles, and thanked the people of the town for their roles in shaping Elizabeth “Lizzi” Marriott into a fine young woman. “Lizzi is a great tribute to everyone here,” Mr. Marriott told the hundreds of mourners who gathered for a candlelight memorial service at the Bay State Commons pavilion. “Together we created an angel,” Mr. Marriott said, his voice breaking as the sorrow welled up from inside. “I thank you for that, and now she's home in Heaven.” New Hampshire authorities said yesterday the 19-year-old Westboro woman, a marine biology student in her first semester at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, had been killed but that her body had not yet been found. She had been missing since Tuesday evening. Seth Mazzaglia, a 29-year-old from Dover she met in July while they both worked at a Target store in Greenland, N.H., is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow in Dover on a charge of second-degree murder. He graduated from UNH six years ago with a bachelor's degree in theater and has worked in various theater jobs and as a martial arts instructor. “I'm still in shock,” said Rebecca L. Tyning, Ms. Marriott's aunt. “Lizzi never liked to say good-bye. Even as a baby, a toddler, a child,” Ms. Tyning said yesterday afternoon as the news of her niece's death spread through town. Authorities were still looking for Ms. Marriott's body as of yesterday, according to Susan Morrell, senior assistant New Hampshire attorney general. Ms. Marriott's car, a tan 2001 Mazda Tribute, was found in a UNH parking lot in Durham. New Hampshire authorities would not say whether Mr. Mazzaglia had confessed or reveal any other specifics in the disappearance and death of the 2011 Westboro High School graduate. Mr. Mazzaglia's website says he is an experienced actor, writer and fight choreographer who has worked in professional and community theaters around southern New Hampshire for years as well as teaching martial arts. He had hoped to break into film. He had most recently played Capt. Keller in Garrison Player's play “The Miracle Worker.” Ms. Marriott was a musician in high school and won a music scholarship. Her aunt said she was a voracious reader who loved the Harry Potter books as a child. At first her parents or Ms. Tyning would read them to her, but Ms. Marriott was soon able to devour them herself. “She loved those books,” Ms. Tyning said. “She would sit with her finger on her nose and her thumb in her mouth. I would tell her to stop doing that because she was starting school soon. She would give me that gleeful look that only a toddler would give you. She's been reading all her life since then, and her writing has always been wonderful.” Ms. Marriott's last Facebook post was Monday, according to Ms. Tyning, and her niece wrote about how she loved the crisp, autumn air of New Hampshire fall and then added, tongue-in-cheek, especially when her jeans are soaked with water up to her thighs. The marine biology student, a former volunteer at the New England Aquarium, thanked her lab partner in the post for sharing the experience of being in a tidal pool that day. Ms. Marriott was voted the queen of her junior prom at Westboro High and made her own prom dress, her aunt said. “I had Lizzi in class,” said Greg Rota, a high school gym teacher, coach and part-time Westboro police officer. He was acting as a family spokesman yesterday. “I wrote her a recommendation for college.” Mr. Rota said Mr. Marriott called him Thursday and expressed concern that family members had not heard from her for several days. In a statement yesterday, Ms. Marriott's family asked for privacy but thanked friends, the University of New Hampshire, local, state and national law enforcement authorities. “This is the worst parents' nightmare, a missing child and with an unfavorable outcome,” the family said. “Please pray for the dedicated rescue professionals who continue to look for Lizzi. We need them to find her and bring her home.” Ms. Marriott has been missing since Tuesday night, when she attended a class at the university and then made plans to visit friends in Dover. Family members and friends blanketed the Dover area Friday with colored fliers bearing two photos of her and the statement that her cellphone was last used in Dover at 10:11 p.m. Tuesday. Her family had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to her safe return. Yesterday, the Marriott family was sequestered in their Westboro home. Police had blocked access to the private road where they live. An assistant New Hampshire attorney general was in Westboro yesterday. Police closed an island in Portsmouth for a search Friday night, but authorities wouldn't say whether the closure was related to Ms. Marriott's disappearance. Ms. Marriott's had been living with her grandmother, Susan Marriott, in Chester, N.H., and commuting to the university's Durham campus. A “Marriott Family Fund” has been established. Donations in support of the family may be made to: Central One Federal Credit Union, 714 Main St., Shrewsbury, MA 01545.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513107
__label__wiki	0.963573	0.963573	Allen throws for 4 TDs, Bills beat 49ers in Arizona By David Brandt GLENDALE, Ariz. — The passes zipped through the air one by one, almost always finding their intended target right on the hands and in stride. By the time Josh Allen was done, the quarterback had finished one of the best games of his young NFL career, and the Buffalo Bills once again looked like one of the league's elite teams. Allen threw for 375 yards and tied a career high with four touchdown passes as the Bills stayed in sole possession of first place in the AFC East with a thoroughly impressive 34-24 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Monday night. “That’s our quarterback. He’s a baller,” Bills safety Jordan Poyer said. “I don’t know what answer you want me to say. It’s no surprise to us what he does every week. I’m happy he’s on our team.” Buffalo (9-3) moved a step closer to winning its division for the first time since 1995 thanks to a nearly flawless performance from Allen. The 24-year-old completed 32 of 40 passes with no interceptions. He threw touchdown passes to Cole Beasley, Dawson Knox, Isaiah McKenzie and Gabriel Davis as the Bills built a 17-7 halftime lead and controlled the majority of the second half. “We were clicking,” Allen said. “It just seemed like our guys were getting open and the ball was coming out of my hand really well." The Bills are one game ahead of the Miami Dolphins with four games left for both teams. San Francisco (5-7) lost in its first game at its adopted home in Arizona. The 49ers will be based in Glendale for at least the next three weeks after Santa Clara County issued strict new coronavirus protocols that forced the team to find a temporary new home. It was Allen's fourth game of the season with at least 300 yards passing and three touchdowns, which set a franchise record. Jim Kelly did it three times in 1991 and Drew Bledsoe three times in 2002. “As long as it correlates to team success, it means we’re doing the right thing, making the right decisions and we’re winning football games," Allen said. “That’s all that matters to me.” The Bills had a much more pleasant trip to the desert than three weeks ago, when they lost a 32-30 heartbreaker to the Arizona Cardinals. That was the game when DeAndre Hopkins made a stunning catch over three Buffalo defenders with 2 seconds left for the game-winning score. San Francisco has had several recent injuries at its slot cornerback position and struggled to cover Beasley, who had a career-high 130 yards receiving on nine catches. “We knew exactly what they were running. We just came up short,” 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw said. “It was kind of a weird feeling.” State Farm Stadium — which is home to the division-rival Arizona Cardinals — was dressed up to make the 49ers feel slightly more at home. There were San Francisco banners hanging on the walls along the sidelines and the videoboard showed Niners highlights and flashed messages like “Faithful to the Bay." The teams traded goal-line stands in the first quarter. The Bills opened the game with a 74-yard drive that was stopped at the Niners 1 after Allen's fourth-down pass fell incomplete. San Francisco responded with a 97-yard drive that ended at the Buffalo 2 when Jeff Wilson Jr. was stuffed for no gain on fourth down. It was just the second game since 2000 that featured two turnovers on downs to start a game. But San Francisco got the ball back one play later on a fumble by Allen and the 49ers took advantage. Nick Mullens hit Brandon Aiyuk in the middle of the end zone for a 2-yard touchdown. It was all Buffalo for the rest of the first half and much of the game. Allen hit Beasley for a 5-yard touchdown and later found tight end Knox for a 4-yard score as the Bills pushed ahead 17-7 by halftime. Mullens finished 26-of-39 passing for 316 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. The 49ers weren't bad on offense, but couldn't keep pace with Allen and the Bills. “We needed to play our best and I think we were very close to doing it,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “We just had a few things that didn’t keep us out on the field. When you do that versus an offense and quarterback like that and you don’t get it back for a while, the game gets away from you.” Prime-time success The Bills got a rare prime-time win. They're now 8-22 in prime-time games since 2000, and 2-8 on Monday night, with their one victory coming against the Jets in November 2014, when the game was moved back a day and played in Detroit after a major snowstorm snarled much of Buffalo. It was their first win in an official “Monday Night Football” game since beating Miami 23-18 in 1999. Allen's homecoming - sort of Allen had a big game against the 49ers, which is the team he rooted for while growing up in Firebaugh, California. The town is about a 3-hour drive from San Francisco, and Allen went to games as a kid with his family. This was the first time he had played against San Francisco. Bills: Beasley left in the first quarter and was evaluated for a head injury but quickly returned. ... RB Devin Singletary (knee) left in the first quarter but returned. ... Safety Jaquan Johnson was hurt on a punt return in the fourth quarter and limped off the field with help. 49ers: DT D.J. Jones (ankle) left in the first half and didn't return.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513109
__label__cc	0.54828	0.45172	Catching Cancer Early It may soon be possible to detect some of the deadliest cancers years earlier than ever before using a simple blood test. It may soon be possible to detect some of the deadliest cancers years earlier than ever before, based on a simple blood test. That's good news for cancer patients, since people with cancer live longer when their cancer is detected sooner. The blood test makes it possible to find small amounts of cancer-cell DNA circulating in the blood, even at a very early stage of the cancer's growth. So far, the test, developed by an international team of researchers, seems to work for lung, liver, stomach, colorectal and esophageal cancers. These five cancer types account for over 250,000 deaths annually in the United States. For the vast majority of cancers, earlier detection should save lives. The test was able to detect cancers in over 90 percent of blood samples from people who showed no cancer symptoms but were diagnosed with cancer one to four years later. It also recognized cancer-free samples 95 percent of the time. Starting with 200 DNA samples from tumors and normal tissues, the researchers were able to identify hundreds of sites where there are differences in methylation between normal and tumor DNA. They then devised a computer-assisted testing system to detect these differences and determine whether a blood sample belongs to a healthy patient or one with cancer, based on whether or not there is any tumor DNA in the blood. They worked with samples from the Taizhou Longitudinal Study, a Chinese study that has been tracking the health of over 100,000 people since 2009. This gave them access to blood samples of people eventually diagnosed with cancer that were taken years before the cancers were detected, as well as samples taken after the cancer was detected. The test, called PanSeer, isn't expected to predict which people will later go on to develop cancer. Instead, it seems to point out people who already have cancerous growths, but show no detectable signs or symptoms of them. The researchers are planning a large study of healthy individuals to further evaluate the effectiveness of the test, its ability to reduce cancer deaths and whether it is cost-effective. If fully validated, they see the test being used as a first-line screen for high-risk patients, with any patient who tests positive undergoing further procedures that could confirm the presence of cancer. Some tiny cancers, notably prostate and thyroid, have a low risk of spreading and may not need quick treatment. But for the vast majority of cancers, earlier detection means earlier treatment, which should save lives. For more details, see the article in Nature Communications. Over a dozen of the paper's authors are board members of Singlera Genomics, a company that hopes to eventually market the PanSeer test. For more information, see the paper's Competing Interests statement, which appears on the article's final page. An Exercise Cancer Vaccine HRT And Breast Cancer Colon Cancer Screening By Mail	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513114
__label__cc	0.520484	0.479516	Reading with the Church Fathers As we saw in the last post, the New Testament authors found Jesus throughout the Old Testament — not by a plain, literal reading of the text but by figurative, metaphorical and allegorical readings. The early Church Fathers followed this same pattern of interpretation. The examples of this are as numerous as the Old Testament Scriptures themselves, over the next few posts, we will focus on a few of them. We will first consider them from a literal or historical reading, then we will look at how the early Fathers understood them through a Christ-centered, gospel-centered reading. This psalm came up in my devotional reading this morning. By a plain, historical reading, it is about David and his experience of God. But the Church Fathers understood it as about Christ and the gospel. Theodoret of Cyr makes an observation in this psalm that is generally applicable to all the psalms: “Since the Lord says, ‘for the Scripture to be fulfilled,’ and shows the present psalm applies to him and no one else, I consider it rash and presumptuous to develop another explanation not applicable to him” (Commentary on the Psalms). Ambrose comments on the superscription as it is found in the Septuagint version of this psalm. “He who had perished in Adam had to be restored in Christ. That is why we have, at the head of the psalm, ‘To the end,’ because Christ is the end to which all our hope is directed” (Commentary on Twelve Psalms). Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the LORD delivers them in times of trouble. (Psalm 41:1) Gregory of Nyssa says of this: “The Word defines blessedness for us in another way than at the beginning. For in the first psalms, to depart from evil was blessed, but here to know the good more fully is pronounced blessed. Now the nature of the good is the ‘only-begotten God,’ ‘who, though he was rich, for our sake became poor.’ The Word here predicts his ‘poverty’ in the flesh, which is pointed out to us through the Gospel account, pronouncing the one who has recognized that ‘poverty’ with understanding blessed” (Treatise on the Inscriptions of the Psalms). I said, “Have mercy on me, LORD; heal me, for I have sinned against you.” (Psalm 41:4) Theodoret of Cyr understands this as Christ identifying with us in our poverty, suffering and sin: “I am the one who is poor, he is saying, who embraced voluntary poverty, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who makes my own the sufferings of human beings, who though having committed no sin offers the prayer for human nature as nature’s firstfruits” (Commentary on the Psalms). My enemies say of me in malice, “When will he die and his name perish?” (Psalm 41:5) Here, Augustine says: “He died, but his name did not disappear; far from it. Rather was his name sown like seed. As the grain was dead, the harvest sprang up. No sooner had our Lord Jesus Christ been glorified than people came to believe in him far more strongly and in much greater numbers; and then his members began to hear the same mutterings that their Head had heard” (Expositions of the Psalms). When one of them comes to see me, he speaks falsely, while his heart gathers slander; then he goes out and spreads it around. All my enemies whisper together against me; they imagine the worst for me, saying, ‘A vile disease has afflicted him; he will never get up from the place where he lies.’ Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me. (Psalm 41:6-9) Theodoret sees in this the false charges brought against Christ as he stood before Pilate. Ambrose and Augustine see Christ’s betrayal by Judas, as do Arnobius the Younger and Diodore of Tarsus. But may you have mercy on me, LORD; raise me up, that I may repay them. I know that you are pleased with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me. Because of my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever. (Psalm 41:10-12) Theodoret says: “All this was said on the part of the nature assumed, which was involved also in the passion. Since, then, the assumed nature remained free of all wickedness, it was right for him to say, ‘But you supported me for my innocence and confirmed me in your presence forever’” (Commentary on the Psalms). Second Kings 2:8-14 This passage also came up in my devotional reading this morning. By a literal, historical reading, it is about the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and the to left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied. “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours — otherwise, it will not.” As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two. (2 Kings 2:9-14) The simple narrative is that Elijah parts the Jordan River by striking it with his mantle, then they both passed between the waters to the other side. There is a brief conversation about Elisha receiving Elijah’s spirit. Then a chariot of fire suddenly appears and Elijah is conveyed to heaven in a whirlwind. Reading through the lens of Christ and the gospel, however, the Fathers see that there is much more at work in this account. Origen understands the parting of the Jordan and crossing to the other side as baptism, just as Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10:2, understood Moses leading the children of Israel between the waters of the Red Sea as baptism: We must note in addition that when Elijah was about to be taken up in a whirlwind as into heaven, he took his sheepskin and rolled it up and struck the water, and it was divided on this side and that, and both crossed, that is to say, himself and Elisha. He was better prepared to be taken up after he was baptized in the Jordan, since Paul, as we explained previously, called the more incredible passage through water a baptism. (Commentary on the Gospel of John) He understands the “spirit” of Elijah in regard to John the Baptist as a precursor of Christ: And this also we have brought forward, because of John having come before Christ “in the spirit and power of Elijah,” in order that the saying “Elijah has already come” may be referred to the spirit of Elijah that was in John; as also the three disciples who had gone up with him understood that he spoke to them about John the Baptist ... And likewise, by Elijah, in this place, I do not understand the soul of that prophet but his spirit and his power; for these it is by which all things shall be restored, so that when they have been restored, and, as a result of that restoration, become capable of receiving the glory of Christ, the Son of God who shall appear in glory may sojourn with them.” (Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew) Bede the Venerable, in his Homilies on the Gospels, understands the whole narrative as a rich typology of the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, the imparting of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the institution of the sacraments of the Church. This is a longer passage but provides a very good example of a Christ-centered reading of the Old Testament. The prophets proclaimed the mystery of the Lord’s ascension not only by their words but also by their actions. Both Enoch, the seventh from Adam, who was transported from the world, and Elijah, who was taken up into heaven, gave evidence that the Lord would ascend above all the heavens … Let your love take note, my brothers, how the symbolic event agrees point by point with its fulfillment. Elijah came to the river Jordan, and having laid aside his cloak, he struck the waters and divided them. The Lord came to the stream of death, in which the human race ordinarily was immersed, and laying aside from himself for a time the clothing of flesh that he had assumed, struck down death by dying and opened up for us the way to life by rising. The change and decline of our mortal life is properly represented by the river Jordan, since the meaning of Jordan in Latin is “their descent,” and since as the river flows into the Dead Sea, it loses its praiseworthy waters. After Jordan was divided, Elijah and Elisha crossed over on dry land; by his rising from the dead the Savior bestowed on his faithful ones the hope of rising too. After they had crossed over the river Jordan, Elijah gave Elisha the option of asking for what he wanted. The Lord too, after the glory of his resurrection had been fulfilled, implanted in his disciples a fuller comprehension of what he had promised previously, that “whatever you ask in my name, I will do.” Elisha asked that the spirit of Elijah might become double in him. The disciples, thoroughly instructed by the Lord, desired to receive the promised gift of the Spirit, which would make them capable of preaching not only to the single nation of Judah, which he himself taught when he was present in the flesh, but to all countries throughout the globe as well. Did he not pledge the double grace of his Spirit when he said, “A person who believes in me will himself also do the works that I do, and he will do even greater ones than these”? As Elijah and Elisha were conversing together, a chariot with fiery horses suddenly snatched Elijah as if into heaven. By the chariot and fiery horses we are to understand the angelic powers, of whom it is written, “He makes the angels his spirits and his ministers a burning fire” (Elijah, being an ordinary human being, had need of them to be raised up from the earth). The Lord too was suddenly taken up as he was speaking with his apostles and as they were looking on; although he was not assisted by the help of angels, he was served by an angelic band of companions. He was truly assumed into heaven with the angels also bearing witness to it, for they said, “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven.” When Elijah was raised up to the heavens, he let the cloak with which he had been clothed fall to Elisha. When our Lord ascended into heaven, he left the mysteries of the humanity he had assumed to his disciples, to the entire church in fact, so that it could be sanctified by them and warmed by the power of his love. Elisha took up Elijah’s cloak and struck the waters of the river Jordan with it; and when he called on the God of Elijah, were divided, and he crossed over. The apostles and the entire church took up the sacraments of their Redeemer that had been instituted through the apostles, so that, spiritually guided by them and cleansed and consecrated by them, they too learned to overcome death’s assaults by calling on the name of God the Father and to cross over to undying life, spurning the obstacles of death. Though we may not be accustomed to reading the Old Testament in this fashion, the Church Fathers were. But it is important to note that they were not undisciplined or unlimited in their approach. Their understanding of the Old Testament did not venture outside the boundaries of Christ and the gospel. All was understood within that framework. Part 2 \| Part 3 Themes: Reading the Scriptures Reading with the Church Fathers (Part 3) Reading the Old Testament with New Eyes Get Out of Hell Free? Until All Are Home Grace and the Wrath of God	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513115
__label__cc	0.605476	0.394524	Search The Glen Loading traffic... ShoppingGifts, Stationery & SpecialtyLiquor & Tobacco Cignall Monday M 08 Feb 9:00am - 5:30pm Tuesday T 09 Feb 9:00am - 5:30pm Wednesday W 10 Feb 9:00am - 5:30pm Thursday T 11 Feb 9:00am - 9:00pm Friday F 12 Feb 9:00am - 9:00pm Saturday S 13 Feb 9:00am - 6:30pm Sunday S 14 Feb 10:00am - 5:00pm Monday M 18 Jan 9:00am - 5:30pm Tuesday T 19 Jan 9:00am - 5:30pm Wednesday W 20 Jan 9:00am - 5:30pm Thursday T 21 Jan 9:00am - 9:00pm Today F 22 Jan 9:00am - 9:00pm Tomorrow S 23 Jan 9:00am - 6:30pm Sunday S 24 Jan 10:00am - 5:00pm Australia Day T 26 Jan 10:00am - 5:00pm Friday F 29 Jan 9:00am - 9:00pm Saturday S 30 Jan 9:00am - 6:30pm www.cignall.com.au With over 150 stores across the Eastern states, their aim is to provide Cignall customers with a complete range of cigarettes, cigars, tobaccos & accessories at a competitive price. check out these similar stores Vicinity Centres About Vicinity Centres 235 Springvale Rd, Glen Waverley VIC 3150, Australia Get directions via Google Proudly owned and managed by Vicinity Centres	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513116
__label__wiki	0.621284	0.621284	The Pierce County Tribune North Dakota Sports Letters to the Tribune By Staff \| Jan 29, 2016 Baltrusch Running for N.D. Senate Glen Baltrusch, of Harvey, has announced he is seeking election to the North Dakota State Senate to represent District 14, not the special interests in Bismarck. Glen has chosen to run because, “The increases in taxes and reckless spending that has occurred over the past decade; along with the erosion of fundamental rights is not in the best interest of the citizens of District 14 or the State as a whole. “The citizens of District 14 are currently taxed more than is necessary to properly fund state and local government. Unfortunately, our current legislators are spending like it belongs to someone else – and it does! It belongs to those of us work hard to support our families. It’s time your elected representatives stop the reckless and excessive spending that is currently going on. I’ll be YOUR representative and will challenge every irresponsible expenditure. This is a promise. “I will challenge and vote against every bill that increases government control over our lives and imposes new rules and regulations that are not clearly necessary. It’s time we get rid of unnecessary rules and regulations. “It’s time to have a Senator that represents District 14 and those who pay our taxes, not those that spend our tax dollars. “The evidence is clear our current Legislators have enacted budgets based on revenue projections that far exceed responsible taxation. “I look forward to representing the citizens of District 14 as their Senator in the North Dakota Legislative Assembly.” Baesler Seeking Re-Election Superintendent Kirsten Baesler said Tuesday she will seek a second four-year term as North Dakota’s superintendent of public instruction. Baesler said she will request a letter of support from delegates to the North Dakota Republican state convention, which is being held April 1-3 at Scheels Arena in Fargo. She is running for re-election to continue progress on a number of education initiatives, Baesler said. During the 2015 Legislature, she won backing for her “Leveraging the Senior Year” initiative, which strengthens college preparation for high school seniors. “Leveraging the Senior Year” is aimed at reducing the number of North Dakota students who require remedial studies while in college, and to broaden availability for advanced high school coursework for students who are excelling. These efforts will save students and their parents time and tuition expense. Baesler said she is especially excited by the challenges offered by the new federal education law, which Congress approved in December. It allows state and local officials more control over education than they have had in 25 years, Baesler said. The new law prohibits the federal Secretary of Education from mandating academic standards and curriculum. The previous law used testing and high school graduation rates as measurements of a school’s success. The new law, Baesler said, allows for more comprehensive and realistic ways of measuring school performance. Baesler said she will assemble a group of education stakeholders, including parents and representatives of business and industry, to write a North Dakota school performance accountability plan “that will be based on what we value, and what we know makes a quality school.” During the 2015 Legislature, Baesler was a leader in a successful effort to obtain $3 million in state support for local early childhood education programs. It was the first time that state funds have been earmarked for prekindergarten. She plans to continue North Dakota’s first Student Cabinet, which the superintendent founded in the spring of 2015. It is a group of 20 students who meet regularly to provide Baesler with a student’s view of how North Dakota education policy is working. The Cabinet’s members range in age from fifth grade to a college freshman. Baesler is also heading a task force, which includes school administrators and legislators, which is drafting suggestions for streamlining North Dakota’s education data reporting system. Its work will help to cut expenses and reduce bureaucracy in school districts. “We have accomplished much at the Department of Public Instruction in the last three years, but there is much more to do,” Baesler said. “We have a priceless opportunity to make sure our schools are places of inspiration and motivation for our students as they prepare for life, college and careers,” Baesler continued. “Now is the time we ensure that every school in North Dakota is a place that parents want to send their children, because students will be engaged in rich and relevant curriculum, and a place where educators want to teach, because there is joy and reward in teaching and learning.” Baesler, of Mandan, was first elected as state superintendent in 2012, in her first run for statewide office. Before she made the race, Baesler served for 23 years in Bismarck’s public schools as a vice principal, library media specialist, classroom teacher and instructional assistant, and worked briefly for the North Dakota School Boards Association. She also served on the Mandan school board for nine years, including seven years as the board’s president. Baesler is a native of Flasher, a rural community in southwestern North Dakota. She has three adult sons. The superintendent is in charge of the Department of Public Instruction, which has 99 employees and a two-year budget of $2.33 billion. Most of the agency’s budget is distributed as state aid to local school districts. The department also oversees the State Library, on the Capitol grounds in Bismarck; the School for the Deaf, in Devils Lake; and the School for the Blind/North Dakota Vision Services, in Grand Forks. Chiang Seeking Election for Superintendent of Public Instruction I am running for the Department of Public Instruction State Superintendent to fix education. The reasons I’m running are many fold. A number of people have ask me to run because they agree with my assessment of not only what is wrong with our state educational system but they also agree with my ideas on how to fix it. I’m embarrassed as a ND teacher at the state pass rate. Along with that I’m embarrassed when I talk to parents who know there is something terribly wrong with their child’s education and I am not permitted to do anything about it. I don’t mean just test scores but the child’s attitude toward school since the “new and improved” changes have been forced onto teachers, students and parents alike. As a teacher I can’t do anything about it. The fix must be lead from the position of Superintendent. It must be fixed by someone who understands there is a problem and how to fix it. Obviously to date, DPI has not and cannot fix it with fancy educational jargon, like College and Career Ready, or more Rigor or the latest program du jour. I am not running against anything. I’m running FOR the future of North Dakota. I am running FOR the children of North Dakota. – Joseph Chiang Please Enter Your Facebook App ID. Required for FB Comments. Click here for FB Comments Settings page Questioning level of care Donald Bischoff, Rugby The following quote is taken from the column by the county veterans service officer in ... Taking issue with Llyod Omdahl Mark Ostrem, Rugby Lloyd Omdahl is a regular contributor to the Tribune. His article, “Apple Cobbler Got Them ... 65 million babies’ lives matter Marlene Oksendahl, Rugby It is impossible to believe the depth to which our nation has fallen since the 60s and ... Copyright © The Pierce County Tribune \| https://www.thepiercecountytribune.com \| 219 South Main Ave., Rugby, ND 58368 \| 701-776-5252 \| Ogden Newspapers \| The Nutting Company	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513119
__label__wiki	0.826667	0.826667	EXCLUSIVE\| Target is to qualify for 2020 Tokyo Olympics, says Youth Olympics gold medallist Jeremy Lalrinnunga Updated Dec 26, 2018 \| 19:55 IST \| Yash Bhati Jeremy Lalrinnunga won India's first ever Youth Olympics gold medal in 2018. He talks exclusively to timesnownews.com on the targets he has set now for himself in the future. Jeremy Lalrinnunga lifts 150 kg at 2018 Youth Olympics. \| &nbspPhoto Credit:&nbspAP Jeremy Lalrinnunga is a known name now on the weightlifting circuit. The 16-year-old is one of the brightest and talented athletes in India. The weightlifting sensation from Mizoram scripted history when he won India’s first gold medal at the Youth Olympics. Jeremy lifted his personal best weight of 274 kg at the biggest stage possible. Jeremy was just one kilogram short of the senior national record in the men's 62kg category. He has had a wonderful year in 2018 where he claimed a silver medal in Youth section and a bronze medal Junior section at the Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championship. Jeremy talked to timesnownews.com on his plans for the future, where he says that his only target is winning a medal at the Olympics. What do you have to say about this Khelo India Youth Games initiative by the sports ministry? It is a very good platform for youth players like us. It gives us a platform like an international event. After playing at such a big event, we may not get nervous in international competition. It would give us confidence. This is really good for us that the government is supporting us so much. (Jeremy at Khelo India School Games. Photo credit- PTI) You won that gold medal at the Youth Olympics. How great a moment was that for you personally after working so hard? It did not think that my performance was really good in the Youth Olympics. I did lift 150 kgs even though I had pain in my knees. It was a really big thing. After doing well in the Youth Olympics, I have much more confidence that I can do well in the senior Olympics also. Can you relive the moment when you lifted the final weight of 150kg and did you realize that you have won India's first ever Youth Olympics gold? When I started to lift the weight, Turkey and Colombia were fighting hard for the spot. I did not think about a medal, I just wanted to lift the weight no matter what. When I lifted 147 kgs, my knees started aching and my thigh muscles started cramping up. My medal was confirmed after that lift but no one told me that. Even my coach did not tell me because he thought if I knew then I may not give my best in my next lift. He said to me that this is your last lift, and you just have to do. It is a do or die for you. Coach started giving me a massage and started to pump me up and I lifted the 150kg weight. What was going through your mind when you realized that you have created history? I was really happy. When I lifted the weight, I just fell to the ground. I prayed to God at that moment. I thought how happy my parents will be. My father is a boxer so he knows about a sportsman’s life. I was really really happy. What was your parent’s reaction when you informed them that you have won the gold at the Youth Olympics? My mother is scared because I lift weight. She worries that I might get injured. My father just said that it is just the start. He said that he is glad that he won at the Youth Olympics but you have to win a senior Olympic gold medal. He just advised me not to get overconfident. What are the targets you have set for yourself now? My coach Vijay sir has set everything. We are going to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics qualification that happens next year. Then we have planned on playing the 2020 Olympics. We are simultaneously planning about the 2024 Olympics because I am at a growing age right now. I’ll have to change my diet and I would gain some muscles. Then I would gradually able to lift more weights. I will try to qualify for the 2020 Olympics and I can guarantee that I will play at the 2024 Olympics. You definitely must be targeting an Olympic medal in the future? I sometimes think that everyone is training like us. When they are winning so why can’t we. I will work very hard and I think I can do that. I can win an Olympic medal. BCCI approves 10 Team for IPL 2020 edition; two more likely to join Exercise Kavach: All you need to know Feels liberated to speak freely on COVID under Biden: Fauci	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513123
__label__wiki	0.885006	0.885006	VICTIMS IN THE AIRWAYS: CORONAVIRUS RESULTED IN FIRST BANKRUPTCIES Kevin Eagan - Apr 27, 2020 Air transport is very strongly affected by the Covid-19 crisis. In the last few days, three companies have been unable to avoid bankruptcy – South African Airways, Norwegian and Virgin Australia. According to the estimates of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the industry will globally lose US$252 billion in 2020. Many airlines were forced to cut up to 90% of their flight capacity. The U.S. government announced a US$50 billion bailout fund to help the workers and airlines themselves. In the UK, the industry will have to rely on broader aid packages covering 80% of salaries for furloughed employees. EasyJet got a loan, while Flybe already collapsed. In Italy, the government will take full control of Alitalia in June, since the airline would have gone bust due to the coronavirus crisis otherwise. Similarly, Air Mauritius, the Mauritian national aviation company, has been placed under voluntary state administration. Most countries worldwide offer either aids or loans to airlines. Several airlines, however, did not get much support. The South African government refused to grant new emergency aid to the national company on 14 April. The situation, which was already very delicate for several years, has worsened with the Covid-19 pandemic and the company became one of the first victims in the airways. Heavily indebted and recently placed in receivership, South African Airways has not recorded any profits since 2011. "The government is unable to provide any more funds to finance the rescue plan (of the company), beyond those already provided," the South African authorities said in a letter addressed to the company's provisional administrators, quoted by the local press. "We think that (the directors) will wait a little longer but they will be forced to ask the court to liquidate," commented economist Peter Attard Montalto. For their part, the Ministry of Public Enterprises said they were working to "define an economic model and a sustainable financial model for the struggling company". South African Airways had already been forced to cut many connections in recent months. A few days after their South African counterpart, the low-cost Norwegian Air Shuttle announced the bankruptcy of four subsidiaries in Sweden and Denmark. These bankruptcies will result in the unemployment of more than 1,500 pilots and more than 3,000 crew members in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. Pilots and cabin crew based in Norway, France and Italy are not affected for the time being. "The impact that the coronavirus has had on the airline industry is unprecedented," said Managing Director Jacob Schram in a statement. "We have done our utmost to avoid having to make this decision as a last resort and have applied for access to government assistance in Sweden and Denmark". Accumulating losses and bending under a colossal debt even before the Covid-19 pandemic, Norwegian is now experiencing cash flow problems since most of its aircraft are grounded. An extraordinary general meeting is scheduled for 4 May. The European low-cost airline has proposed a total or partial conversion of debts and financial commitments into shares. The Australian airline announced on 21 April that it had voluntarily suspended payments, becoming the first major airline to collapse under the shock of the outbreak of the new coronavirus. "Our decision today is aimed at ensuring the future of the Virgin Australia Group and its rebirth after the Covid-19 crisis," explained its CEO Paul Scurrah in a press release. "Australia needs a second airline and we are determined to continue our flights," he added. Virgin Australia, indebted to the tune of five billion Australian dollars (€2.95 billion), had asked for a loan of more than one billion Australian dollars to keep itself afloat. To no avail. There is, however, extraordinary interest in this company and in the restructuring of Virgin Australia. Virgin Australia was already showing signs of financial weakness before the Covid-19 outbreak. By 2019, it had recorded an underlying pre-tax loss of A$71 million. HARD TIME FOR AIRLINES: OVER 10 MILLION SEATS THREATENED IN EUROPE CURBING EMISSIONS: NORWAY SET TO INTRODUCE ELECTRIC AIRCRAFTS BY 2040 ENCOURAGING TRAVELERS WITH LABELS AND HEALTH CERTIFICATIONS AIR TRANSPORT: THE MOST PROFITABLE ROUTES FROM AND TO THE CONTINENT	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513125
__label__wiki	0.566339	0.566339	Inducted Toys › Inducted 2015 Puppets may have originated in the Egypt of the pharaohs or in India nearly 6,000 years ago. Because the toy form appears long ago in nearly every culture in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, no one really knows where it began. Plato and Aristotle wrote of puppets, and ancient puppeteers presented the Iliad and the Odyssey using figures made of clay and ivory. Early Chinese and Japanese puppeteers fashioned miniature figures for religious ceremonies and the telling of folktales and epic stories of gods and heroes. In Europe, the Christian church used puppets to present morality plays. Eventually puppet theater included secular stories and comedies, and puppetry became a popular form of rowdy entertainment at carnivals, fairs, and market gatherings. Europeans brought puppets to the New World, and the playful figures entertained Americans in street theaters and later in vaudeville houses and on public stages across the country. In the 20th century, television spread the popularity of puppets among children and adults and produced some beloved American icons. Charlie McCarthy led the way for Howdy Doody, a little puppet with his very own television series in the 1950s. Howdy shared his TV audiences with Kukla, Fran, and Ollie. Shari Lewis, a ventriloquist and puppeteer, featured her characters Lamb Chop, Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse, and others on a number of TV series that entertained children from the 1950s to the 1990s. And, of course, since 1969 Jim Henson’s Sesame Street puppet characters have taught children the world over their numbers, letters, and more. Puppets belong in the play world of individual children too. Hand puppets have been a popular toy form for more than a century. Playing with puppets helps children develop coordination and manual dexterity. Children use their imaginations to provide voice, plot, and purpose to their puppet characters. Puppets give kids cover to confront new challenges and troubling subjects: kids often use puppets to act out and say things that they wouldn’t say or do on their own. Using puppets allows children to try on new personalities, emotions, and goals.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513126
__label__wiki	0.817502	0.817502	A decade of data on life in the UK Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, launched its first survey in 2009, so now has ten years of data from households across the country. Funded and supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and a number of government departments, Understanding Society is one of the leading sources of data on the UK population. Since its launch, tens of thousands of households across the UK have completed the survey and continued to take part in the study ever since. Each year Understanding Society issues a wide-ranging questionnaire that asks participants about their: family and community. Each household helps the study build a rich picture of life in the UK and track what changes, and what doesn’t, over time. Providing vital information The data is used by: researchers worldwide thinktanks businesses. In the last year many participants have also completed regular COVID-19 surveys, alongside their annual survey, giving researchers vital information about how the coronavirus pandemic has affected families and households. The release of Wave 10 of Understanding Society means that researchers now have a decade of data to explore and analyse. To celebrate this milestone, Understanding Society plans a year-long series of events and mini-conferences on key themes in the study, which will take place throughout 2021. A week of topical debates The first of these is a week of topical policy debates featuring researchers and policy commentators who will look beyond short-term pressures to think strategically about the long-term future of society: Monday 25 January: Education and social inequalities – what are the links? Tuesday 26 January: The future of work – how can it generate a health dividend Wednesday 27 January: Parents and children – how one generation influences the next Thursday 28 January: Spending wisely on health – can we do better? Friday 29 January: Financial resilience and recessions – what are we learning? At the beginning of that week, Understanding Society will release its annual Insights publication. This celebrates innovative research about life in the UK from the past year, and this edition will also look back at the breadth of analysis made possible by its longitudinal data throughout the life of the study. Focus on changing families In March, Understanding Society will hold an online mini-conference on Changing Families. The conference will feature: networking with other researchers. Achieving a key milestone Professor Alison Park, ESRC Director of Research, said: It’s exciting to see Understanding Society reach its 10th birthday and to celebrate the richness and depth of the data it provides about life across the UK. With the addition of the COVID-19 surveys, this longitudinal study will provide vital and unique insights about how the pandemic has affected families and households both in the short and longer term. Professor Michaela Benzeval, Director of Understanding Society, said: Thanks to our long-term funding, Understanding Society has been collecting data from its participants for over 10 years. In 2021 we’re celebrating recent findings, looking back at insights from all the years covered by the Study and exploring the implications of the findings for the future. Longitudinal surveys become increasingly valuable over time and with 10 years of data and research we can really see the value of the Study, which will only grow with time. Details of all the special 2021 events are available on Understanding Society’s conference website. Events are open to all and are free to attend, but advance booking is required. Understanding Society data are available to download from the UK Data Service. Top image: Credit: georgeclerk/Getty Images	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513128
__label__wiki	0.964261	0.964261	Former Allbritton Counsel Joins Sinclair's One Media By posted by Deborah D. McAdams 09 September 2014 BALTIMORE — ONE Media LLC announced that Jerald Fritz has joined the company as executive vice president for Strategic and Legal Affairs. Fritz will play a key role in shaping ONE Media’s next-generation broadcast platform. “ONE Media is focused on developing a new standard for broadcast transmissions—lowering barriers of entry into mobile broadcasting while also providing other services such as ultra high definition,” said Tommy Eng, ONE Media LLC’s president. “Providing programming to viewers on all their devices without a need to be tethered to a cable or data plan is a unique capability that only broadcasters have. We want to make that new platform available to broadcasters and viewers as soon as possible.” Until recently, Fritz was the long-time senior vice president for Legal and Strategic Affairs for Allbritton Communications Co. and its online news affiliate, Politico LLC. Joining Allbritton in 1987 after serving as chief of staff to FCC Chairman Mark Fowler and as a primary architect of deregulatory efforts in the broadcasting and telecommunications industries, Fritz helped develop Allbritton with the formation of NewsChannel 8, the first independent 24-hour local cable news service in the country, new webcasting platforms and Politico. Fritz has helped to craft major telecommunications legislation as well as FCC regulations involving media ownership, content regulation and competitive carriers. He has lectured extensively and testified before Congress and the FCC on communications law, policy and the future of the telecommunications industry, including program ownership rights, distribution platforms and copyright relationships. “ONE Media... delivers what we had all hoped for with the conversion from analog to digital broadcasting by expanding flexible broadcasting services to local markets,” Fritz said. “By developing a broadband broadcast platform that equally supports fixed and mobile services, ONE Media is redefining and developing an advanced and flexible future for broadcasting. Rather than deconstructing the broadcast business, One Media is on the forefront of dramatic expansion.” Fritz is an immediate past governor of the ABC Affiliates Association chairing its Government Relations Committee and leading its NewsOne revision team. He served as a director on the NAB TV Board where he chaired the NAB-X.com Task Force for a virtual trade show and served on the NAB’s Digital Television Task Force as well as its EEO, Web Streaming and Copyright Committees. HBO Max Garners Most New Streaming Subs in Q4, Kantar Reports Journalists Getting COVID-19 Vaccine as Part of Phase 1c C-Band Auction Ends, Generates $80.9B Heartland Video Joins ATSC as Voting Member	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513130
__label__wiki	0.795602	0.795602	Power Problem The business press did everything but take on the institutions that brought down the financial system by Dean Starkman People walk out of the Lehman Brothers building carrying their belongings in New York. \| Credit: CHIP EAST/REUTERS “The government, the financial industry and the American consumer — if they had only paid attention — would have gotten ample warning about this crisis from us, years in advance, when there was still time to evacuate and seek shelter from this storm.” Diana Henriques,New York Times business reporter, speech at The George Washington University, November 8, 2008 Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism Mirror Award “But anybody who's been paying attention has seen business journalists waving the red flag for several years.” — Chris Roush, “Unheeded Warnings,” American Journalism Review, December/January, 2009 “I'm kind of curious as to . . . why is it that people were shocked, given the volume of coverage.” — Nikhil Deogun, deputy managing editor, The Wall Street Journal, quoted in “Unheeded Warnings” “For in an exact sense the present crisis in western democracy is a crisis of journalism.” — Walter Lippmann, Liberty and the News, 1920 These are grim times for the nation's financial media. Not only must they witness the unraveling of their own business, they must at the same time fend off charges that they failed to cover adequately their central beat — finance — during the years prior to an implosion that is forcing millions of low-income strivers into undeserved poverty and the entire world into an economic winter. The quotes above give a fair summary of the institutional response of the mainstream business press to the charge that it slept on the job while lenders and Wall Street ran amok. And while the record will show this response is not entirely wrong, one can see how casual business-press readers might have a problem with the idea that final responsibility for failing to stop escalating dangers in the financial system has somehow shifted to them. Dang, Margaret, we blew it again. A review of 2,000 major stories, 2000 to 2007, shows the press failed to expose Wall Street ties to subprime loans. There were few warnings about the Wall Street/subprime nexus; coverage of pay, deals and players dominated. Such reporting was gettable. The Los Angeles Times effectively chronicled boiler rooms and forgery at Ameriquest. It is understandable that the business press would want to defend its record. But it is equally understandable, I hope, that some readers might want to see some support for these claims. You know the old journalism saying, “If your mother says she loves you,” etc. For if the institutional response is correct, and all was done that could be done, then journalism has even bigger problems than Google and Craigslist. In the best case, if this response is to be believed, the financial press faces the problem of irrelevance — all that newsprint and coated paper, those millions of words, the bar graphs, stipple portraits, glossy photos of white guys, the printing presses, delivery trucks, and Yale degrees, is worth about as much as a New Century share. Lippmann, I think, would understand the problem. Without facts, the public is powerless. With them, well, it can lick Countrywide and Goldman Sachs put together. In his book, Liberty and the News, Lippmann wrote: “Everywhere today men are conscious that somehow they must deal with questions more intricate than any church or school had prepared them to understand. Increasingly, they know they cannot understand them if facts are not quickly and steadily available.” Without them, he says, there can be no liberty. He was talking about a crude and corrupt press that manipulated public opinion around World War I. We're dealing with a financial press that is neither of those things, but is nonetheless a battered and buffeted institution that in the last decade saw its fortunes and status plummet as the institutions it covered ruled the earth and bent the government. The press, I believe, began to suffer from a form of Stockholm Syndrome. Now, it is in the awkward position of telling its readers they were insufficiently attentive to what it wrote. I can think of several reasons why this is a bad approach, optics-wise. For one thing, it sounds a bit like telling customers they didn't read the documents carefully enough, just what Ameriquest used to say about its Pay-Option ARMs. Don't go there, press friends. For another thing, readers could answer that while it is true that they may have missed warnings, they do recall hearing messages that didn't sound like warnings at all. Anyone “paying attention” might have thought that the most important thing about Washington Mutual on a given day was that its “Creative Retail Approach” had turned “the Banking World Upside Down” (Fortune, 3/31/03); that Lehman Brothers was “Trading Up” (The Wall Street Journal, 10/13/04); that Ken Lewis had become the “Banker of America” by “Ignoring His Critics” (Fortune, 9/5/05); that Angelo Mozilo was merely pugnacious (“The Mortgage Maker vs. The World,” The New York Times, 10/16/05); that Citigroup was “Cleaned Up” (!) though “Falling Behind” (Business Week, 10/05/06); and, additionally, that Goldman (drum roll) had “Sachs Appeal” (honk) (Forbes, 1/29/07). Nothing about mortgage boiler rooms and CDO factories there, no matter how carefully you read. Finally, if reader inattention is really the problem, then what's an appropriate policy response — mandatory exams on “Personal Journal” stories? But would the jump be included on the final? My pet idea is to pipe Squawk Box into people's homes 24/7, with no turning it off, à la North Korea. If we're nationalizing everything, we might as well go all the way, right? I'd say a better approach in the wake of this disaster is to reflect on why all these “warnings” went “unheeded” and failed to penetrate the thick skulls of Pick-a-Pay Nation. Alas, the business press does not appear to be in a reflective mood. But, business press, as Jimmy Cayne might say, it's not about you. It's all about us. We citizens, like it or not, rely on journalists to provide word of rampant wrongdoing, and now we find ourselves well beyond the worst of all worst-case scenarios, caused, by general consensus, to an overwhelming degree by this most central of business-press beats: finance. We need to learn the lessons of the past eight years or so, even if the press doesn't want to go along, and re-examine, from top to bottom, all the firewalls that were supposedly designed to protect us from precisely the financial catastrophe that has just occurred. These firewalls start with risk managers, officers, directors, etc., within the financial institutions, then extend outward to accounting firms, rating agencies, regulators, and yes, journalists. The press's role is, as always, ambiguous. On the one hand, no one at Forbes sold a single collateralized debt obligation to any German pension fund, so the press certainly can't be blamed for causing the crisis. On the other hand, Bloomberg News employs 2,300 business journalists, The Wall Street Journal, 700-plus, The New York Times, 110, etc., and all business-news organizations purport to cover the financial system and imply, if not claim outright, mastery over a particular beat — the one that just melted down to China to the shock of one and all. So the press isn't exactly an innocent bystander, either. It's not 100 percent responsible, and it's not zero percent. It's somewhere in the middle, closer to zero than fifty, I'd say, but it had something to do with it. Right now, the business press, which firmly believes it did all it could do, is in something of a standoff with those who believe that cannot be true. The discussion so far has been conducted largely at a schoolyard level: “You missed it!” “Did not.” We also see a lot of defensiveness among business journalists, as though somehow individual reporters are to blame. This is preposterous. These are institutional questions. Senior editorial leaders and news executives are in the dock here, as is an entire media subculture. Leaders had the power; they set the tone; they set the frames, not this reporter or that one. Major news outlets so far have not trained their resources on the question, a drive-by or two by Howard Kurtz notwithstanding. The American Journalism Review, quoted above, did take a look and found in the business press's favor. With all due respect to our cousins in Maryland, I find AJR's approach — in effect, sticking a thumb into several years of coverage and pulling out some plums — inadequate. Of course somebody did something. And a few did a lot of things. But did the coverage even come close to reflecting the radical transformation of the mortgage industry and Wall Street in 2004, 2005, and 2006? Tellingly, “Unheeded Warnings” contains a disturbing number of examples from 2007, when warnings were about as useful as a garden hose during the Tokyo fire bombings. It also dwelled on coverage of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which, odious as they were, followed the private sector into subprime. In this debate, the business press has the advantage because the public cannot be sure whether in fact it did miss something. Being sure would require reading the entire record of what was printed on the topics of lending and Wall Street in several outlets over many years — hundreds and hundreds of stories. Who in their his mind would do such a thing? Well, somebody had to. It struck us that it is impossible to avoid trying to assess the business press's performance in the run-up to the meltdown. The business press is the sole means by which normal citizens would know of goings-on in the lending industry and on Wall Street. It is the vital connection between the public on one side and regulators and financial institutions on the other. It is the only instrument capable of catalyzing the virtuous cycle of reform that emerges when dangers and abuses come under the public gaze. If readers screwed up, so be it. But if it is the business press, readers are going to have to insist on identifying weak points, cultural problems, skewed priorities, and areas in which the business press's institutional interests might be out of alignment with those of the broader public. If members of the public must go elsewhere for warnings, they need to know that, too. It is true that few sectors of journalism, with the possible exception of the Washington press corps, are as infected with the extreme form of know-it-all-ism as the business press, which wields the complexities of its subject area like a cudgel against non-cognoscenti. But readers should not shrink from asking relevant questions merely because they don't know the precise mechanics of a credit default swap and don't read Fortune as closely as they might, say, the Torah. The fact is, you don't need to be a media critic or a quant to assess whether proper warnings were provided. What's more, I suspect most rank-and-file reporters would welcome scrutiny, as long as it's fair. And so we undertook a project with a simple goal: to assess whether the business press, as it claims, provided the public with fair warning of looming dangers during the years when it could have made a difference. I'm going to provide a sneak preview of our findings: the answer is no. The record shows that the press published its hardest-hitting investigations of lenders and Wall Street between 2000–2003, for reasons I will attempt to explain below, then lapsed into useful-but-not-sufficient consumer- and investor-oriented stories during the critical years of 2004–2006. Missing are investigative stories that confront directly powerful institutions about basic business practices while those institutions were still powerful. This is not a detail. This is the watchdog that didn't bark. To the contrary, the record is clogged with feature stories about banks (“Countrywide Writes Mortgages for the Masses,” WSJ, 12/21/04) and Wall Street firms (“Distinct Culture at Bear Stearns Helps It Surmount a Grim Market,” The New York Times, 3/28/03) that covered the central players in this drama but wrote about anything but abusive lending and how it was funded. Far from warnings, the message here was: “All clear.” Finally, the press scrambled in late 2006 and especially early 2007 as the consequences of the institutionalized corruption of the financial system became apparent to one and all. So the idea that the press did all it could, and the public just missed it, is not just untenable. It is also untrue. We went into the project with the working hunch that something was wrong. This stems from our belief in journalism itself. As journalists, we have to believe that what we do is not entirely ineffectual and that it has some impact on the outcome of events. Otherwise, why bother? Given that the system failure here is absolute, whatever journalism did do, as a matter of logic, was insufficient. But a second idea going in was that this “debate” about business press performance is not really a matter of opinion at all. Either the work is there, or it isn't. Facts have a way of obliterating assumptions. Our approach was fairly straightforward. We picked a date range of January 1, 2000 through June 30, 2007, with the idea that the early date would capture the entire housing bubble and the later date marked the period right after two Bear Stearns hedge funds collapsed very publicly and all warnings were moot. We then came up with a common-sense list of the nine most influential business press outlets: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg News, Financial Times, Fortune, Business Week, and Forbes. CNBC and other television outlets were excluded both for practical and substantive reasons. With the help of some colleagues, we searched the Factiva database for the names of important institutions — Bear Stearns, Countrywide, etc. — and matched them with search terms that seemed appropriate, such as “predatory lending,” “mortgage lending,” “securitization,” “collateralized debt obligations,” and the like. We then asked the news outlets themselves to volunteer their best work during this period. Some institutions were more diligent than others, so, on that score, The New York Timesmight tend to be overrepresented, while The Washington Post, which declined to participate, might get shorted. Similarly, Bloomberg, the FT, and the Los Angeles Times posed technical challenges. But, while we won't hesitate to differentiate between the relative performance of different outlets (and reporters, for that matter), the goal was to assess institutional performance, not who “won.” Nobody won. The articles are in a spreadsheet, which can be found here. I was a staff writer at the Journalfrom 1996 through 2004, covering commercial real estate during the relevant period, and on contract at The Washington Post for 2005, covering white-collar crime; nothing of mine is on the list or deserves to be there. As of this writing the sheet contains 730 entries, but it remains open and we plan to add stories indefinitely as we come across them. Feel free to send your entry to editors@cjr.org. The database is meant to be used as a companion to this story. I hope it will be a reference for further research and that readers will use it to argue for or against CJR's conclusions. The list, then, was designed to capture all significant warning stories, not just some of them. And while 730 may seem like a lot of relevant stories, keep in mind the Journal alone published 220,000 stories during this period, so in a sense these were corks bobbing on a news Niagara. The list also includes as guideposts bits of context that we felt would give readers some sense of what was happening on the finance beat at the time (e.g. “Fed Assesses Citigroup Unit $70 Million in Loan Abuse,” NYT, 5/28/04). Sprinkled throughout are some of those rah-rah stories (“Mortgage Slump? Bring It On; Countrywide plans to grab more of the market as the industry consolidates,” BW, 12/15/03), and a tiny fraction of the run-of-the-mill stories about important, and guilty, institutions that in retrospect were so far from the salient point that one wishes we could have the space and the reporters' time back (“Power Banking: Morgan Stanley Trades Energy Old-Fashioned Way: In Barrels . . .” WSJ, 3/2/05). Let's get to it. The most striking thing about the list for me is that the best work during the entire period — stories that hit hard at abusive practices and established the critical link between bucket shops and their Wall Street funders and bundlers — was done early, from 2000 to 2003.Business Week's Dean Foust, et al, explored Wall Street's foray into the hard-money lending business, including subprime mortgages and payday lending (“Easy Money: Subprime lenders make a killing catering to poorer Americans. Now Wall Street is getting in on the act,” 4/24/00). A handy chart at the bottom of the story ranks subprime securitization leaders: Lehman was number one. Citigroup's 2000 acquisition of Associates First Capital, a notoriously corrupt outfit (it employed a “designated forger,” ABC's Prime Time Live reported in 1997) spurred The New York Times to publish “Along With a Lender, Is Citigroup Buying Trouble?” in October of that year. This fine 3,258-word story documented Associates' execrable practices fairly well (though it couldn't beat the anecdote from a 4/23/97 Journalstory that described how an illiterate quarry worker who owed $1,250 for — get this, meat — discovered that this loan had been sold to Associates, which convinced the quarry worker to refinance ten times in four years until he owed $45,000, more than half of it in fees, with payments that took more than 70 percent of his income. He had signed each note with an “X”). The Times duly noted Citi's promise to clean up its new acquisition by, among other things, holding upfront fees to a mere nine (!) points. Business journalism during this period comes close to reaching the holy grail — the critical Wall Street/subprime connection — when The New York Times's Diana Henriques, in a joint project with Lowell Bergman and ABC News (including, though he doesn't have a byline, the underappreciated Brian Ross), published “Mortgaged Lives: Profiting From Fine Print With Wall Street's Help” (3/15/00), linking another now forgotten but once powerful and rapacious subprime lender, First Alliance Corp., with Lehman Brothers and other Wall Street firms engaging in precisely the kind of practices that brought down the financial system. The story captures the boiler-room culture that was then overrunning traditional mortgage underwriting, here with a quote from a twenty-seven-page sales manual: “Establish a common bond,” the loan officers were taught. “Find this early in the conversation to make the customer lower his guard.” The script listed good bond-building topics (family, jobs, children, and pets) and emphasized, “It's really important to get them laughing.” The piece goes on to describe the Wall Street connection in some detail: “No Wall Street investment bank had a bigger share of that reviving 1999 [subprime] market than Lehman Brothers, Wall Street's fourth-largest brokerage house.” This story and others were based on groundbreaking litigation in California that, importantly, would hold a Wall Street firm responsible for the practices of its lender-clients. Had that principle stood up (an Orange County jury found for the borrowers in 2003 but the award against Lehman, $5 million, was small), there would have been no mortgage crisis. The Los Angeles Times, led by E. Scott Reckard, also dogged the litigation, recognizing the journalism opportunity for what it was. John Hechinger of The Wall Street Journal also wrote fine warning stories, including one about how brand-name lenders were convincing the poor to refinance zero-percent loans from the government and Habitat for Humanity (!?) with rates that reset to the mid-teens and higher (“Best Interests: How Big Lenders Sell a Pricier Refinancing to Poor Homeowners — People Give Up Low Rates to Pay Off Other Debts . . .” 12/7/01). The dishonor roll is here: Some of the nation's biggest subprime lenders have refinanced zero-interest and low-interest loans from Habitat, including Countrywide, units of Citigroup Inc., Household International Inc., Ameriquest Mortgage Co. and a unit of tax giant h&r Block Inc. Meanwhile, the Journal's Jess Bravin and Paul Beckett painted a devastating portrait of a compromised Comptroller of the Currency (“Friendly Watchdog: Federal Regulator Often Helps Banks Fighting Consumers — Dependent on Lenders' Fees, OCC Takes Their Side Against Local, State Laws” 1/28/02). And Forbes did a beat-down on Household (“Home Wrecker,” 9/2/02). What is important to remember about the period around the turn of the decade — and this is not a knock on the press — is that predatory lending was high on the public's agenda, mostly in response to marauding behavior of old-line subprime lenders like Associates, First Alliance, Conseco Finance, Household, etc., who at the time were being joined by the new generation of subprimates — Ameriquest, New Century, et al. From the mid-nineties to the early '00s, foreclosures began to jump in urban areas around the country, rising half again in Chicago's Cook County, doubling in Detroit's Wayne County, Newark's Essex County, and Pittsburgh's Allegheny County, tripling in Cleveland's Cuyahoga County, according to American Nightmare: Predatory Lending and the Foreclosure of the American Dream, a muckraking book by Richard Lord published in 2005, based on his reporting in the Pittsburgh City Paper on this early subprime boomlet. Between 1999 and 2004, more than half the states, both red (North Carolina, 1999; South Carolina, 2004) and blue (California, 2001; New York, 2003), passed anti-predatory-lending laws. Georgia touched off a firestorm in 2002 when it sought to hold Wall Street bundlers and holders of mortgage-backed securities responsible for mortgages that were fraudulently conceived. Would that such a measure had survived. We forget now, but beginning in 2004 Michigan and forty-nine other states battled the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency and the banking industry (and The Wall Street Journal's editorial page) for the right to examine the books of Wachovia's mortgage unit, a fight the Supreme Court decided in Wachovia's favor in 2007 — about a year before it cratered. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and Roy Cooper, his counterpart in North Carolina, made predatory lending the centerpiece of their tenures (see: “They Warned Us About the Mortgage Crisis,” BW, 10/9/08) while in New York Eliot Spitzer gave grandstanding a good name in trying to bring attention to the issue (“Spitzer's Ghost,” CJR.org, 10/14/08). This isn't about identifying which journalist or economist was “prescient,” the business-press parlor game du jour. What's important is that forthright press coverage and uncompromised regulation combined to create a virtuous cycle of reform. Citigroup, remember, was forced to sign a $240 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission covering two million customers. This is marketing deception on a mass scale, revealed and policed. A coalition of states forced an even bigger settlement, for $484 million, on Household. This was in 2002. It wasn't perfect, but it was working. Alas, any fair reading of the record will show the business press subsequently lost its taste for predatory-lending investigations and developed a case of collective amnesia about Wall Street's connection to subprime, rediscovering it only after the fact. There are a number of explanations (though no excuses) for this. First and foremost, was the abdication of regulatory responsibility at the federal level. Uncompromised regulation and great journalism go hand-in-hand. But when such regulation disappears, journalistic responsibilities only increase. What is important to understand first is that this press failure did occur. Readers needn't be bullied into believing they missed relevant independent press investigations of Countrywide, New Century, IndyMac, Citigroup, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, or Merrill Lynch. Check the sheet; they aren't there. What makes this development especially maddening is that subprime lending and Wall Street's CDO production at this point were only just getting started. Subprime mortgages in 2002 were $200 billion, 6.9 percent of all mortgages. By 2006 they were $600 billion and 20 percent of the market. Add poorly documented “Alt-A” mortgages and the 2006 figures rise to $958 billion and 32 percent. CDO production went from next to nothing in 2000 to half a trillion in 2006. Behind those numbers were the boiler rooms, underwritten by the Wall Street masters of the universe depicted on business magazine covers. Yes, we must beware of hindsight-ism. But let us acknowledge that today, at least, we know that the lending industry from 2004 through 2006 was not just pushing it. It had become unhinged — institutionally corrupt, rotten, like a fish, from the head. I argued last fall (“Boiler Room,” Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 2008) that post-crash reporting has given short shrift to the breathtaking corruption that overran the mortgage business — document tampering, forgery, verbal and written misrepresentations, changing of terms at closing, nondisclosure of fees, rates, and penalties, and a boiler-room culture reminiscent of the notorious small-stock swindles of the nineties. Now the muck is finally bubbling to the surface as the Justice Department and several states gear up to prosecute “dozens” of leaders (“Financial Fraud is Focus of Attack by Prosecutors,”NYT, 3/12/09) and journalists latch onto the story in all its lurid glory. Business Week's excellent Mara Der Hovanesian reports, for instance, that Wall Street demand for mortgages became so frenzied that female wholesale buyers were “expected” to trade sex for them with male retail brokers, according to “dozens” of brokers and wholesale buyers (“Sex, Lies, and Mortgage Deals,” 11/13/08). But: The abuses went far beyond sexual dalliances. Court documents and interviews with scores of industry players suggest that wholesalers also offered bribes to fellow employees, fabricated documents, and coached brokers on how to break the rules. And they weren't alone. Brokers, who work directly with borrowers, altered and shredded documents. Underwriters, the bank employees who actually approve mortgage loans, also skirted boundaries, demanding secret payments from wholesalers to green-light loans they knew to be fraudulent. Some employees who reported misdeeds were harassed or fired. Federal and state prosecutors are picking through the industry's wreckage in search of criminal activity. There's a Coen brothers movie in this. Yet sadly, as corruption heated up, business-news coverage generally downshifted into what I call service and consumer pieces: warning about the bubble and pointing to patently defective types of mortgage products. Indeed, business-news outlets, to their credit, seemed to fall over themselves to be first (bubble talk appears, surprisingly, as early as the fall of 2001) and/or loudest about calling the end of the bubble: “Is a Housing Bubble About to Burst . . . ?” (BW, 7/14/04), for example, or “Boom vs. Bust: The housing-price run-up can't last . . .” (WSJ, 6/14/04). I don't mean to disparage bubble stories: these were real warnings. Fortune might well win the prize, if there were one, for bubble-bursting with “Is the Housing Boom Over?” — 4,539 words by Shawn Tully, in September 2004; a year later, in October 2005, Tully answered himself with another five-thousand-plus words, “‘I'm Tom Barrack* and I'm getting out,'” about a real-estate investor. Meanwhile, the press was also warning consumers not to agree to a mortgage product containing terms that no well-regulated system would allow. “The Ever More Graspable, And Risky, American Dream” (NYT, 6/24/04). “armed and Dangerous? Adjustable-rate mortgages are pulling in new home buyers — but the risks are high” (BW, 4/12/04). Indeed, the Journal kept after the issue and essentially called these mortgages bad on their face: “For These Mortgages, Downside Comes Later,” 10/5/04; “The Prepayment Trap: Lenders Put Penalties On Popular Mortgages,” 3/10/05; “Mortgage Lenders Loosen Standards,” 7/27/05. It should be said these usually ran on D1, not A1, and so gave the impression of low-priority bleats from the back of the paper. Even so, there they were, and, so, yes, regulators and lawmakers did have information they could have used had they wanted to. So shame on them. These are valuable stories. But to get the public involved you need more. You need stories of institutionalized corruption. There's no way around it. I would suggest that in approaching the mortgage story as a consumer or investment story, the business press was trying to fight the Battle of Tarawa with a Swiss Army Knife. What was missing — and needed — were more stories like the one that ran on February 4, 2005 in the Los Angeles Times by Mike Hudson and Scott Reckard: “Workers Say Lender Ran ‘Boiler Rooms.' ” This, CJR reader, was the real thing, a 3,220-word investigation that kicks in the door. It uses court documents and interviews with ex-employees and customers, nothing fancy, to expose Ameriquest, which at the time was one of the nation's leading lenders, “Proud Sponsor of the American Dream” and the 2005 Super Bowl halftime show, and owned by the politically well-connected Roland Arnall, soon to be named U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands: Slugging down Red Bull caffeine drinks, sales agents would work the phones hour after hour, he said, trying to turn cold calls into lucrative “sub-prime” mortgages — high-cost loans made to people with spotty credit. The demands were relentless: One manager prowled the aisles between desks like “a little Hitler,” Bomchill said, hounding agents to make more calls and push more loans, bragging that he hired and fired people so fast that one worker would be cleaning out his desk as his replacement came through the door. The Los Angeles Times, it's worth pointing out, also probed Ameriquest's attempts to co-opt critics (“Ameriquest's Ties to Watchdog Group Are Tested,” 5/22/05), chronicled possible forgery at the lender (“Doubt is Cast on Loan Papers,” 3/28/05), and, crucially, explained how at least 20 percent of all subprime loans were going to prime borrowers, what I call the boiler-room effect (“More Homeowners With Good Credit Getting Stuck With Higher-Rate Loans,” 10/24/05). It turns out that the number actually reached more than 50 percent, The Wall Street Journal found in December 2007. These all ran at over two thousand words on A1 and helped catalyze a multistate investigation that forced Ameriquest into an embarrassing $325 million settlement the next year. Clearly, then, such reporting was gettable. Two years later, the Journal published an Ameriquest story (“Lender Lobbying Blitz Abetted Mortgage Mess,” 12/31/07), but by then, the lender was closed. So let's be clear: stories like the Los Angeles Times's Ameriquest probes are the exceptions that prove the rule. And while handwringing about the bubble and pointing out defective mortgage products is hard, muckraking about specific, powerful institutions is harder, more useful, and more fun to read: Lisa Taylor, a former loan agent at Ameriquest's customer-retention office in Sacramento, said she witnessed documents being altered when she walked in on co-workers using a brightly lighted Coke machine as a tracing board, copying borrowers' signatures on an unsigned piece of paper. Great, right? If the muckraking story — a straight investigation aimed at the heart of the business model of an industry leader — was scarce in mortgage lending, it was rarer still on Wall Street's end of the mortgage machine. As far as I can tell it was the unicorn of business coverage. One looks in vain for stories about Wall Street's ties to the subprime industry, even though the Lehman-First Alliance case had outlined it in detail and nearly all the major investment banks would, by the middle of the decade, go on actually to buy their own retail subprime operations (who remembers Bear Stearns Residential?). What was happening was a vast change, a paradigm shift. Citizens did not see it coming. Now we know why. And a word about head-on investigations of powerful institutions: they're not optional. There is no substitute. The public needed warnings that the Wall Street-backed lending industry was running amok. It didn't get them. Remember Lippmann: no facts, no democracy. It is disingenuous, I believe, to suggest, as many financial journalists do, that they are unfairly expected to have been soothsayers in the economic crisis (e.g. “Financial Journalism and Its Critics,” Robert Teitelman, TheDeal.com, 3/6/09: “Why, among all other journalists, are financial reporters expected to accurately predict the future?”). Rather, the expectation is merely that financial outlets do their best to report on what is happening now, including, one would hope, confronting powerful institutions directly about basic business practices. This is not complicated. Of course, anyone would applaud the astute and highly skilled journalists who looked at brewing systemic problems, as did Bloomberg's David Evans (“Credit Swaps, Some ‘Toxic,' May Soar to $4.8 Trillion,” 6/26/03); Business Week's Der Hovanesian (“Taking Risk To Extremes; Will derivatives cause a major blowup in the world's credit markets?” 5/23/05); the Journal's Mark Whitehouse (“Slices of Risk: How a Formula Ignited Market That Burned Some Big Investors,” 9/12/05; “Risk Management: As Home Owners Face Strains, Market Bets on Loan Defaults,” 10/31/06), and Gillian Tett, John Plender, and others at the Financial Times (numerous stories). But even these virtuoso efforts are still not the same as confronting a Wall Street firm head-on for its role in underwriting mortgage boiler rooms across the country. A good place to start would have been Citigroup, apparently, since Hudson — he of the Ameriquest stories — did it in his spare time. Freelancing while working full time for The Roanoke Times, he pulled the cover back on Citigroup's huge subprime operation in 2003 (!?) and won a Polk Award in the process (“Banking on Misery: Citigroup, Wall Street and the Fleecing of the South,” Southern Exposure, summer 2003). He mentions the mortgage aftermarket only in passing, but that's where the national press can take over for ground-level reporting. If only. No reader, not even one really applying herself, would have found adequate warnings about the Wall Street/subprime nexus. She would instead have found plenty of coverage focused on the earnings horserace (“Putting the Muscle Back in the Bull; Stan O'Neal may be the toughest — some say the most ruthless — ceo in America. Merrill Lynch couldn't be luckier to have him,” Fortune, 4/5/04), personalities (“Rewiring Chuck Prince; Citi's chief hasn't just stepped out of Sandy Weill's shadow — he's stepped out of his own as he strives to make himself into a leader with vision,” BW, 2/20/06), and situated comfortably within frames set by the industry itself (“Joining the Club — Inside Goldman's Secret Rite: The Race to Become Partner,” WSJ, 10/13/06). I find Lehman and Citi coverage to have been especially poor, again, given what was known by 2003 (“Lehman's New Street Smarts; Under CEO Fuld, the bond house has become a dealmaking power,” BW, 1/19/04; “The Unlikely Revolutionary: Critics are sniping and the stock is lagging, but Citigroup's Chuck Prince keeps charging ahead, blowing up business practices put in place by his famed mentor, Sandy Weill,”Fortune, 3/6/06). Only after the crackup had already begun is Wall Street's role in subprime again laid bare (“Debt Bomb — Lending a Hand: How Wall Street Stoked The Mortgage Meltdown . . . ,” WSJ, 6/27/07): Lehman's deep involvement in the business has also made the firm a target of criticism. In more than 15 lawsuits and in interviews, borrowers and former employees have claimed that the investment bank's in-house lending outlets used improper tactics during the recent mortgage boom to put borrowers into loans they couldn't afford. Twenty-five former employees said in interviews that front-line workers and managers exaggerated borrowers' creditworthiness by falsifying tax forms, pay stubs and other information, or by ignoring inaccurate data submitted by independent mortgage brokers. In some instances, several ex-employees said, brokers or in-house employees altered documents with the help of scissors, tape and Wite-Out. Suddenly, the story — the one that counts — was gettable again. It referred, after all, to documents available for years. There is really no excuse. The author of this Journal piece, by the way, was Hudson. He left the paper later that year and is writing a book about subprime. It is true that Bush-era deregulation and the media's financial travails hampered investigative journalism (of course, the Pittsburgh City Paper could manage it, but never mind). But the business press also disarmed unilaterally. CJR's study, I believe, provides strong support for the idea that sometime after 2003, as federal regulation folded like a cheap suitcase, the business press institutionally lost whatever taste it had for head-on investigations of core practices of powerful institutions. Too bad that's precisely what was needed. In light of this general system failure, what are the lessons for the general reader and the business press itself? First, the public should be aware — warned, so to be speak — that its interests and those of the business press may not be in perfect alignment. The business press exists within the Wall Street and corporate subculture and understandably must adopt its idioms and customs, the better to translate them for the rest of us. Still, it relies on those institutions for its stories. Burning a bridge is hard. It is far easier for news bureaucracies to accept ever-narrowing frames of discourse, frames forcefully pushed by industry, even if those frames marginalize and eventually exclude the business press's own great investigative traditions. Second, there's a difference between reporting from an investor's perspective and from a citizen's. The business press is better at the former than the latter, and the gap has only been growing. I would only caution that what's good for investors in the short and medium terms may not be good for anyone over the long haul. Third, remember the nexus between uncompromised regulation and great journalism. Fourth, lament the decline of the great business sections of general-circulation dailies, specifically those of the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. Fifth, seek alternatives. Read Mother Jones, or something, once in a while. Sixth, never, ever underestimate the importance of editorial leadership and news ownership, for in them rests the power to push back against structural conflicts and cultural taboos fostered by industry, to clear a space for business journalism to do the job it is clearly capable of, the one job that really needed doing. Research support was provided by the Puffin Foundation Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute, now known as Type Investigations. Dean Starkman Dean Starkman is a journalist and media critic. Major support for Type Investigations provided by: More on Economic Crisis Chicago Has Been Quietly Intercepting... The Immokalee Way: Protecting Farmworkers... Trump’s National Labor Relations Board Is... We bring hidden stories to light. Don’t miss the next one! Get our free newsletter now.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513133
__label__cc	0.609823	0.390177	(S. or J. Abbey) Salomon van Abbé and Joseph van Abbé were two brothers who signed their work Abbey. The dates given are for Salomon who also used the name C. Morse. He was born in Amsterdam and was an artist, etcher and illustrator of books and magazines. The General (1936) A stinging indictment of the British military culture that led to the wanton slaughter of World War I. Author(s): C. S. Forester Illustrator(s): Abbey Jeeves Omnibus (1931) Includes stories from Jeeves (The Inimitable Jeeves), Carryon, Jeeves!, and Very Good, Jeeves (!). Author(s): P. G. Wodehouse The Luck of the Bodkins (1935) Monty Bodkin bought the Mickey Mouse doll with the removable head for his fiancee Gertrude Butterwick, but his brother’s boss, head of Superba-Llewellyn Motion Pictures has a more urgent need for it. Mulliner Nights (1933) A collection of short stories narrated by Mr. Mulliner. Wodehouse seems to have been thinking much on the comedic possibilities of the higher clergy at this time. Mulliner Omnibus (1935) A collection of Mr. Mulliner stories from Mr. Mulliner Speaking, Meet Mr. Mulliner, Mulliner Nights and the Mr. Mulliner stories from Blandings Castle (Blandings Castle and Elsewhere.) Right Ho, Jeeves (1934) Aunt Dahlia, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Madeline Bassett, Tuppy Glossop and Bertie and Jeeves -- what you might call a Wodehouse full house. Thank You, Jeeves (1934) It all begins when Bertie Wooster decides to take up the banjolele seriously and Jeeves objects, leading to a parting of the ways, but they meet again in the chaos that is Chuffnell Regis, and after the banjolele is destroyed in an act of arson by Bertie’s new man, the rift in the lute is healed. Oh, and there are pairs of lovers and girls threatening to marry Bertie and an avenging father. Did I mention Sir Roderick Glossop was there as well? in black face?	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513134
__label__wiki	0.968956	0.968956	Wednesday, October 30, 2002, Chandigarh, India B U S I N E S S Cabinet approves 10th Five-Year Plan Sets 8 per cent target of growth rate New Delhi, October 29 The Cabinet today gave its nod to the 10th Five-Year-Plan which sets an ambitious target of achieving an average annual growth rate of 8 per cent during the Plan period of 2002-07. In video (28k, 56k) USA hesitates to invest America finds China a better investment destination compared to India due to India’s uncertainty over economic reforms. In video (28k, 56k) NRIs to invest $ 100m in Punjab A delegation of 40 NRIs from the USA, Canada and the UK, which called on Capt Amarinder Singh here today, evinced keen interest in making huge investments in the state to revive its sagging economy. Isuzu Motor displays a futuristic car TL-4 at the Tokyo Motor Show in Makuhari, Japan, on Tuesday. The vehicle is an experimental cab design study being showcased at the commercial car show. — Reuters BIZ BRIEFS Haryana IT exports cross 3200 cr mark Disappointing Q2 results pull down the market Invest in rural projects: Shanta Wind up PFC, PAIC, PRTC: report Dr Reddy’s Lab net profit falls MTNL, BSNL to slash Internet access charges HCL Tech net income drops 36 per cent PTL, PunCom, PACL cleared for sale Buy house in the colony developed by a coloniser Disinvestment programme has come to a halt: Shourie Mitsuoka Motor Co saleswoman Aki Yoshida waves from the Micro Car ME-2, which the carmaker says is the world's narrowest car, at 88 cm (34.64 inches), about half that of conventional passenger cars, at the Tokyo Motor Show in Makuhari, Japan, on Tuesday. The car's size allows the driver to park in the same space as a small motorbike, and will be launched on the Japanese market in January 2003 for 858,000 to 938,000 yen ($6,949 to $7,596). — Reuters Punjab decides to restructure dairy Punjab has become the first state in the country by deciding to enact the Punjab Herds Legislation Act, that would ensure the registration of animals in the state to improve the quality of animals and milk products subsequently. Natural gas to ‘power’ Punjab economy Chandigarh, October 2 The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on natural gas co-operation between Punjab and Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) signed today opens a new economic window for the state. Punjab Tractors net profit dips Punjab Tractor Ltd has reported a 65.16 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 10.8 crore in the second quarter of the fiscal from Rs 31 crore in the corresponding period last year. Wockhardt net up 21.6 per cent Mumbai, October 29 Pharma major Wockhardt Ltd’s net profit has increased 21.6 per cent to Rs 36 crore for the third quarter ended September 30 as compared to Rs 29.6 crore in the same period of the previous year. Gabriel’s India Subex Systems GE Shipping IPCL Philips India Asahi India Digital GlobalSoft Essel Propack Nilkamal Plastics Bharti Tele loss jumps New Delhi October 29 Bharti Tele-Ventures today reported an increase in its loss to Rs 196.6 crore for half year ended September, 2002, compared to a loss of Rs 15.8 crore in the year-ago period. Centurion Bank cuts net losses Centurion Bank today announced that it had posted a lower net loss of Rs 17.06 crore for the half year ended September 2002, compared to the net loss of Rs 26.14 crore for the half year ended September 2001. The Cabinet today gave its nod to the 10th Five-Year-Plan which sets an ambitious target of achieving an average annual growth rate of 8 per cent during the Plan period of 2002-07. Speaking to newspersons after the Cabinet meeting held at the Prime Minister’s residence here, Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission K C Pant said the Plan will have an outlay of Rs 9,21,291 crore and the outlay for states and UTs will be Rs 6,71,009 crore. Mr Pant refused to be drawn into any kind of comparative analysis with projections by economic think-tank National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER). “There is no relevance in comparing the two targets. One bad agriculture year can disturb the overall growth targets,” Mr Pant said even as he expressed confidence that the growth targets were achievable provided some hard decisions were taken by arriving at a political consensus. “We have achieved the 5.5 per cent growth in the last two years despite low performance of the industry and the agriculture sectors”, he said. “What if the agriculture sector improves... we can then see an economic growth of 7.5 per cent to 8 per cent annually,” he said. The NCAER has projected a 4.8 per cent growth during the current fiscal year while the RBI has made a downward revision of the growth target to 5.5 per cent. The bulky Tenth Plan document runs into three volumes and envisaged reduction of the poverty levels, population growth, gender gaps in literacy and wage rates by 50 per cent and providing potable drinking water in all villages by the end of the Plan period. The three volumes of the Plan document are “Dimensions and Strategies”, “Sectoral Policies and Programmes”, and “State Plans- Concerns and Strategies”. It identifies agriculture as an engine of growth and proposes to generate 50 million jobs over the next five years and sets an FDI inflow target of $ 7.5 billion annually. For efficient fiscal management, the Plan has recommended widening the tax base and improving collections, removing tax incentives and concessions and introducing an integrated Central and state VAT, downsizing the government, cut in subsidies and administrative overheads, Pant said. He, however, evaded questions on the proposed Rs 78,000 crore disinvestment plan set out by the Plan during the five-year period and said : “I am not putting myself in the position of the Finance Minister.” The commission was more concerned about the gross budgetary support to achieve the target and mobilisation of funds through the disinvestment route accounted for about 2 per cent of the GBS. America finds China a better investment destination compared to India due to India’s uncertainty over economic reforms. Citing the disinvestment debate as an example, the US Ambassador to India Mr Robert D Blackwill said Indo-Pak tensions and communal violence in the country are equally contributing towards dampening of the US investor’s urge to venture forth in the Indian market. Mr Blackwill was addressing a meeting on “Doing Business with India”, with the industry representatives, organised by FICCI in the capital today. Comparing the Indian and the Chinese economies, he said despite Indian claims of remarkable performance over the last decade, the fact remains that China has forged ahead on most economic measures in the last 10 years. The GDP growth over the last 20 years — while in China has been around 10 per cent per annum, in India, the same has been only around 6 per cent. Similarly, factors like per capital income (China $900, roughly double than India), tourism revenues, manufacturing activities, exports and various other comparative trends do have a considerable effect on the investment decision of the private companies. Consistent implementation of the policies will assure high growth rate in country without compromising its democratic governance, said Mr Blackwill. Talking about the commercial potential between USA and India, he said the total US-India trade last year was only $ 15 billion and there is a long way to go before India moves up from the 25th place on the US bilateral trade list. Mr Amit Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI and Mr Y.K. Modi, Vice-President, FICCI were also present. They said they were fully convinced with reformative policies of the new government and hoped that Punjab would soon emerge as a front-runner state. Addressing the delegation, the Chief Minister urged them to invest in Punjab in information technology, bio-technology, agro-processing and power. By doing so they would not only render financial support to the state but also serve their own motherland. He assured the delegation that they would not face harassment from bureaucracy. They would feel comfortable because his government had recently introduced certain radical reforms to dispose of the pending cases of the NRIs with regard to the clearance of industrial projects which they intended to set up in Punjab. The visiting delegation assured the CM to promote the industry, the state by investing capital in a big way. It promised to invest upto $ 100 million in the various ventures, including hydro-electric power, health, education and tourism. Mr Lakhbir S. Gill and Mr Vikram J.S. Bajwa, Chairman and Secretary, NRI Entrepreneurs, said the delegation was overall impressed with the performance of the government. Responding to the call given by the CM to complete the Khalsa Heritage Complex at Sri Anandpur Sahib which was launched by the Akali-BJP regime during the celebrations of birth tercentenary of Khalsa and remained incomplete due to the paucity of funds, the delegation promised to raise requisite funds to complete it. Punjab has become the first state in the country by deciding to enact the Punjab Herds Legislation Act, that would ensure the registration of animals in the state to improve the quality of animals and milk products subsequently. The Act, waiting for President’s approval, was aimed at to revolutionise the whole milk processing sector by modernising the milk production, storing, processing and exports, said Mr Jagmohan Singh Kang, Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries, Punjab, here today. He was speaking at the inaugural session of the Rural Enterprise Summit, organised by the CII, North Region. He disclosed that the state government was determined to give a big boost to the production of milk and milk products as per international standards. The Act would take a holistic view, he said, to restructure the dairy sector. Since, the dairy sector was contributing about 20 per cent to the state GDP, but due to lower quality of milk and higher production costs of the cooperative milk plants, the share of state in exports was limited. The share of India, in the total US $12000 million world trade was just one per cent, despite the fact India was the largest milk producer in the world. Earlier, Mr D.S. Jaspal, Secretary, Animal Husbandry, said: “It is unfortunate that the cost of milk processing in cooperative sector is as high as Rs 5 to Rs 6 per litre, resulting in lower margin of milk producers. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on natural gas co-operation between Punjab and Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) signed today opens a new economic window for the state. It aims at laying a 450 km pipeline, costing Rs 1,000 crore, for power generation, fertilizer manufacture, industrial growth and transport sector. The project will take two years to complete. The Punjab state industrial development corporation Managing Director, Mr Viswajeet Khanna and GAIL’s Director, Planning, Mr H P Chandna, signed the MoU in the presence of the Chief Minister, Capt. Amarinder Singh and Minister for Industries, Mr Avtar Henry, and GAlL Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Mr Proshanto Banerjee. The MoU envisages undertaking of a techno-economic feasibility survey of the state to assess the demand and potential for the natural gas. This survey is slated to be completed in two months and, thereafter, the joint venture between PSIDC and GAIL would give shape to the proposed identified sectors of the economy. A joint committee will monitor the projects. A short presentation made by GAIL showed that company had a 95 per cent share in the gas market, countrywide, a net-work of 4,500 km pipelines and catered to key cities. Mr Banerjee said that countrywide, power and fertilizer sectors each consumed 40 per cent of the available gas, whereas, 15 per cent was used by the industrial sector and barely 5 per cent by the auto-mobile sector. Punjab Tractors net profit dips 65 pc The company’s net sales have decreased by 43.4 per cent to Rs 132.9 crore in the second quarter of the fiscal (Rs 238.5 crore). Expenditure too has seen a decline primarily because the consumption of raw material was reduced by almost half during the second quarter this year. The company’s operating profit margin has also fallen from about 21.34 per cent to about 17.81 per cent. PTL’s earnings per share for the half-year ended September 2002 works out to Rs 4.1 (not annualised). The fall in the company’s profits comes at a time when the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC), PTL’s largest single shareholder, is working towards disinvesting its stake in the tractor company. The financial performance of the company is likely to affect its valuation. The company’s income from operations for the reporting quarter were up by 19.1 per cent at Rs 205.3 crore over Rs 172.4 crore in the Q3 of 2001, Wockhardt chairman Habil Khorakiwala said in a statement here today. Reliance Capital Ltd has posted a net profit of Rs 26.7 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2002, registering a rise of 7.15 per cent compared to Rs 25.52 crore in the corresponding period last year. The total income of the company decreased from Rs 138.06 crore in the second quarter of 2001 to Rs 101.5 crore in the second quarter of 2002. Gabriel India Ltd, a leader in shock absorbers and the flagship company of the Anand group, has registered a net profit of Rs 5.76 crore during the first six months of the current fiscal, a jump of 306 per cent over Rs 1.42 crore earned during the corresponding period last year. Merck Ltd has reported a 25.29 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 10.84 crore for the third quarter ended September 30 as compared to Rs 14.51 crore in the same period of the previous year. Net sales for the reporting quarter decreased to Rs 89.36 crore as against Rs 94.43 crore in the Q3 of 2001. The other income too decreased to Rs 1.79 crore as against Rs 1.95 crore in the same period of previous year, it added. Bangalore-based telecom software company Subex Systems Limited today reported a 161 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 3.25 crore for Q2 of 2002-03, over the corresponding period of previous year (Rs 1.24 crore). Revenue grew by 28 per cent from Rs 14.31 crore to Rs 18.36 crore, a company release said. Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd has reported a 45.23 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 56.73 crore in the second quarter ended September 30 as compared to Rs 39.06 crore in the same period previous year. Total income in the reporting quarter has decreased to Rs 261.55 crore as against Rs 310.79 crore in the same period previous year. Reliance Industries Controlled Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd’s (IPCL) net profit has soared by 87.5 per cent at Rs 45 crore for the second quarter ended September 30 as against Rs 24 crore in the same period of the previous year. Net sales too increased to Rs 1,252 crore in the current quarter as compared to Rs 1,198 crore in the Q2 of 2001. Philips India Limited has posted an increase in the net profit by 56 per cent for the third quarter ended September 30, 2002 at Rs 13.6 crore compared to Rs 8.7 crore in the July-September period of 2001. Automotive glass maker Asahi India Glass Ltd said today its net profit has increased by 29.4 per cent to Rs 4.92 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2002 from Rs 3.80 crore in the same quarter last year. Digital GlobalSoft has reported a negative growth of 4.1 per cent in the net profit at Rs 21.37 crore for Q2 of 2002-03, over the corresponding period of the previous year (Rs 22.29 crore). However, the total revenue increased to Rs 97.91 crore from Rs 83.58 crore, up 17.1 per cent, a company release said today. Essel Propack, has registered a net profit of Rs 47.6 crore during the first nine months of this calendar year, an 8 per cent increase over Rs 44.1 crore earned during the corresponding period last year. Nilkamal Plastics has posted a 44 per cent growth in the net profit for the second quarter ended September 30, 2002 at Rs 2.93 crore as compared to Rs 2.03 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Agencies Bharti’s loss for the quarter ended September, 2002, stood at Rs 129 crore against a net profit of Rs 12 crore in the same period the previous year, according to Bharti’s consolidated profit and loss statement as per the International Accounting Standards. However, Bharti’s total revenue increased a whopping 89 per cent to Rs 657.6 crore during the July to September quarter, 2002, from Rs 348.6 crore in the corresponding period the previous year. PTI The bank showed an operating loss of Rs 12.54 crore during this period as during the quarter ended September 30, the bank had disposed of certain non-banking assets as a part of re-structuring of its assets and liabilities for better returns which had resulted in a one-time extraordinary loss of Rs 13.96 crore booked as operating loss. Centurion Bank also sold a part of its equity investments at a loss of Rs 10.36 crore while a provision of Rs 9.43 crore held against the portfolio was credited below the line as per accounting procedure. Spice facility Spice Telecom yesterday announced the introduction of pre-activated national facility on its prepaid card — Spice Quicky. Mr Ashok Goyal, Executive Director of the company, in a press note issued here claimed that the new service would offer the facility to receive and make calls to anywhere in India while roaming on other networks. He said, “it will allow subscribers to use rechargeable cards to recharge their accounts and also to check their balance while roaming anywhere. For any other additional service, the customers can call at 9814012347.” TNS Ropar, October 29 Mr Nico Gerardu Director, DSM Anti-Infectives, the Netherlands, today inaugurated the “Water Management Facility” (waste water treatment plant) in the DSM Anti-Infectives’ factory complex at Taunsa village, about 8 km from here. The plant has been set up at a cost of more than Rs 4 crore in a record period of six months. TNS Amritsar, October 29 The Oriential Bank of Commerce at its branch office at Ranjit Avenue today offered to change the old soiled notes. Launching the scheme the Deputy General Manager, Mr Jasbir Singh said that OB would offer new currency notes and new coins every month for the benefit of people. OC Bill Gates’ visit Microsoft Corporation Chairman Bill Gates will come on a four-day visit to India from November 11 this year and hold meetings with key government officials, academicians, leading corporate houses and industry associations. UNI	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513135
__label__cc	0.508597	0.491403	Tiffany Uranga, DNP Tiffany Ann Uranga, DNP, Commander, Navy Name: Tiffany Ann Uranga, DNP, Commander, Navy GSN Administration Assistant Site Director, Phase II, NMCSD, Registered Nurse Anesthesia Program Naval Medical Center, San Diego, CA tiffany.uranga@usuhs.edu NMCSD Anesthesia Department Commander Tiffany Ann Uranga is a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) in the United States Navy currently assigned to Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), Graduate School of Nursing (GSN) as an assistant professor. In 2000 she graduated magna cum laude from Villanova University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. After three years as a civilian critical care nurse she was commissioned as an Ensign into the Navy Nurse Corps and began her naval career in the intensive care unit at Naval Hospital Pensacola in Pensacola, FL. Two years later she deployed to Camp Delta Detention Hospital and Clinic in Guantanamo Bay (GTMO), Cuba as an individual augmentee, detainee operations critical care nurse. As a lieutenant her next assignment was Naval Hospital Guantanamo Bay in GTMO, Cuba in the emergency department. From Cuba Uranga was selected for the Navy Nurse Corps Anesthesia Program in 2007 and attended Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. She graduated in 2009 with a Master of Science in Nurse Anesthesia and co-authored her first publication in obstetrical anesthesia. One year into her first CRNA tour at Naval Hospital Bremerton in Bremerton, WA, she volunteered for a seven-month deployment aboard USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74). Uranga served as the sole anesthesia provider for medical and dental departments while in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn. While afloat she earned her Surface Warfare Medical Department Officer qualification. Her next tour at Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD), CA, she served as a staff CRNA, became certified in acupuncture through the HELMS Medical Institute for Physicians Course, and earned her Doctorate of Nursing Practice from the University of Alabama with her capstone project focusing on high-fidelity technology. After her tour in San Diego, Uranga joined academia transferring to USUHS as a Phase I professor in the GSN's Registered Nurse Anesthesia Program. She severed in this capacity for three years before transferring to her current position as Assistant Director of Phase II clinical site at Naval Medical Center San Diego, San Diego, CA. Additional professional accolades include a graduate of the Naval Post Graduate School Healthcare Modeling and Simulation certificate program (2016) and eCornell Plant Based Nutrition certificate program (2017). Her current research and academic interests are the use of emergency manuals and operational readiness training in nurse anesthesia, particularly utilizing multi-level fidelity simulation, and incorporating integrative medicine into the GSN curriculum. Uranga personal military decorations are a Joint Service Commendation Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (three awards), Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513138
__label__wiki	0.590645	0.590645	We Believe in Israel will email you to keep you up to date with developments relating to Israel, to suggest campaigning activities you may want to be involved in, and to inform you about our events. You may opt out from receiving such information at any time. Privacy Policy We the undersigned call on Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson in all his correspondence and meetings with his Palestinian Authority counterparts to ask them to recognise Israel as a Jewish state. The Israeli government says this recognition is a condition of restarting peace negotiations because it is fundamental to drawing a line under one of the main obstacles to peace: the refusal of Palestinian leaders to recognise Israel’s nature as a Jewish state and hence the legitimacy of Zionism as the national liberation movement of the Jewish people. This refusal undermines the concept of two states for two peoples. This goes right back to the establishment of the state of Israel in November 1947 through UN resolution 181, which called for the partition of the land into an Arab state and a Jewish state. Whilst Israel accepted this, Arab states and Palestinian leadership led by Hal Amin Al-Husseini rejected it leading to Israel’s war of independence. PA President, Mahmoud Abbas reaffirmed this rejectionist position when in January 2014 he said: “We won’t recognise the Jewishness of the State of Israel and won’t accept it.” Recognising and accepting Israel as a Jewish state is consistent with negotiations based on the two state solution of an Israeli state next to a Palestinian state. It would be a clear and public abandonment of the goal of eradicating Israel either through terrorism or by the relocation to Israel of millions of people of Palestinian descent currently living in refugee camps across the Arab world, and a clear statement of mutual recognition of the legitimacy of the two national movements. Want to hear from us? Tick this box to give We Believe in Israel permission to email you and keep you up to date. Tick this box if you don't wish to be contacted by We Believe in Israel using the data you've supplied.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513140
__label__cc	0.6043	0.3957	Overcoming Shyness We all have something that we are self conscious about. One of my biggest is my singing. For as long as I can remember, I have loved to sing. But I get so nervous if I sing in front of anyone. People have always told me that they like to hear me sing. They always say that I sound good. But still, that nervousness remains. Growing up with eight older siblings instilled in me a wide range of musical tastes. I grew up listening to music from different decades, and developed an appreciation and love for it all. There are so many good songs out there. I enjoy most genres, but my favorites are rock and country. I also like gospel. As I grew, I discovered an aptitude for writing. I write stories, poetry and songs. My Mom says I started making up little songs and poems long before I learned to write. One day when I was about 8 years old, one of my brothers told me, "I bet you can't write a song." So of course I just had to prove him wrong. I had made up silly little songs before, but had never actually written them down on paper. But when Richy dared me, I was determined. And the simple act of writing it down on paper was the beginning of a life long hobby. Yes, it was a simple and childish song...I was 8 years old, after all. But it WAS a complete song. I had the lyrics and the tune for it in my head. I could sing it. Unfortunately, I never mastered an instrument. I wish I had learned piano or guitar. But I could hear the music in my head. That's all I needed to write. Once I had written that first song, the ideas just kept coming. When I write, I don't concentrate on any particular subject or idea. I don't sit contemplating, trying to come up with words. When I write, the words just kind of pop into my head. If it's a poem, it's just words in my head. But if it's a song, the words pop into my head line by line, with the tune included. Sometimes it takes several days, even weeks to complete a song. Other times, it just crashes into my head line after line until I have a complete song in my head. When I was little, I dreamed of growing up and becoming a singer. That's what I would have told you if you had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. As I got older, I held on to that desire, but I would get so nervous about singing in front of people. Despite all the compliments people gave me when they heard me sing, I was still lacking in confidence. So I shifted my "official" dream career choice to include my writing. Then one year for Christmas my Dad got me a karaoke machine. Every time I was home alone, I would record myself singing my favorite songs. When I played those tapes for friends who had never heard me sing, they didn't believe it was me. One friend even talked me into singing a few lines so she could compare. But still, it was hard for me to sing in front of people. In an attempt to overcome my shyness about singing, I forced myself to sing in church for a while. I discovered that once I began singing, especially with a microphone in my hand, it became easier to do. Despite the extreme nervousness that I felt, I could force myself to do it. There's just something about a microphone that boosts my courage. Even now, I still get nervous about my singing. I have friends who have known me for years and yet they have absolutely no idea that I even like to sing. But I know I can do it if I put my mind to it. What I've learned is that to overcome shyness, the best way to do it is to just force yourself to ignore that nervous feeling and not let it stop you. I know that it's easy to say, but hard to do...but push yourself into taking action. Let yourself feel the shyness, but don't let it stop you from doing what you want to do. Labels: Non-review	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513141
__label__wiki	0.53674	0.53674	Tahl Lawrence With a background in civil engineering, Hamilton man Tahl Lawrence was “itching to continue learning and add to my skills sets,” when he decided to sign up for the MBA programme at Waikato. “If I was going to study, I wanted to make it count," he says. “For me it wasn’t about moving up ranks; it was about extending myself to lift my outlook personally and professionally. I arrived with a fairly well-rounded skillset, and the MBA has complemented this brilliantly, building on my transferable skills. I’m pretty excited about what the future holds for me.” Tahl says a highlight of Waikato’s MBA programme has been meeting and working with some amazing people from a diverse range of backgrounds and industries, which really brings classroom discussions alive. While it’s been a challenge to give up so much personal time with friends and family, he firmly believes the MBA has been a good investment of his time and money. “It gives you the tools to make some great choices in your career, and some great decisions in business. The majority of lecturers are business consultants who are well-known in their field of expertise, meaning the content is credible and very relevant. It can be put straight into practice in the real world.” During his study, Tahl has made some exciting career changes, moving from local government into the private sector working with a Waikato-based start-up company. Following the MBA study tour to China, he has turned his attention to New Zealand-China opportunites. Tahl was awarded the Corporate & Executive Education MBA Scholarship, worth $10,000, after achieving top marks in his class while completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies (PGDipMgtSt) last year, also known as Part One of the MBA. “I would certainly recommend the PGDipMgtSt to anyone in business or looking to develop their skills across a broad range of relevant topics,” he says. “Completing the full MBA is a big step, but for those with leadership aspirations, I don't think you can beat it for both real-world exposure and professional credibility."	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513143
__label__wiki	0.993117	0.993117	Skip to main content Arts & Entertainment Books Movies Music Museums Theater & Dance TV Comics Going Out Guide Crosswords Frank Sinatra Jr., who lived in the shadow of his famous father, dies at 72 Frank Sinatra Jr. and his father in 1963. (AP) By Matt Schudel Matt Schudel Obituary writer Frank Sinatra Jr., who was blessed and cursed to be the echo of his father’s voice, who survived a kidnapping as a teenager, later conducted his father’s orchestra and, as a singer, re-created the Sinatra sound with uncanny fidelity, died March 16 in Daytona Beach, Fla. He was 72. The cause was cardiac arrest, his family said in a statement. Mr. Sinatra was on tour, singing his father’s classic music from the great American songbook. Mr. Sinatra became a public figure at his birth, during his father’s first blaze of fame as a singing idol. Although he was not technically a “junior,” he was his father’s only son and became known by the diminutive, second-generation term. He struggled throughout his life to build an identity of his own. He had a contentious relationship with the elder Sinatra, who was often called the greatest singer of popular music of the 20th century but was absent for much of his son’s childhood. From time to time during his performances, Frank Sinatra Jr. would say, “I am now going to devote five minutes to the music of Frank Sinatra because that is exactly how long Frank Sinatra devoted to me.” Frank Sinatra Jr. in 2008. (Caio Leal/AFP/Getty Images) His parents divorced when he was a child, and Mr. Sinatra grew up in his mother’s home in Los Angeles with his two sisters, Nancy and Tina. Still, he was never far from his father’s orbit and often attended his recording sessions and nightclub performances. He learned all of his father’s music by heart and, from an early age, sang at family gatherings. He became a proficient musician and enrolled at the University of Southern California with ambitions of being a pianist and composer. He joined a singing group at Disneyland, then left college to become a vocalist with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra, one of the bands that helped launch his father’s career. (Dorsey died in 1956, but his “ghost band” continues to perform under his name.) “He knows — and projects — the inflections, the shading, the phrasing that his father used,” New York Times music critic John S. Wilson wrote in 1963. But a less charitable critic for Newsweek described his singing as “mimicry.” Even though he was billed as Frank Sinatra Jr., he never had the natural charisma on stage that his father had. There was a family resemblance, but his eyes were brown, not blue. In December 1963, when he was 19, Mr. Sinatra was abducted at gunpoint from a Lake Tahoe hotel. He instantly became the country’s most famous kidnap victim since the Lindbergh baby in 1932. During a bizarre cat-and-mouse game, the kidnappers negotiated with the elder Sinatra through a series of phone calls to out-of-the-way gas stations. They demanded a ransom of $240,000 — even though the entertainer willingly offered $1 million. As the four-day ordeal unfolded, Mr. Sinatra was held hostage and driven around California in the trunk of a Chevy with a bad muffler. After the ransom money was delivered, the kidnappers released Mr. Sinatra, who was walking to his mother’s house when he was found by a police officer. When he saw his father, the first thing he said was, “I’m sorry, Dad.” After three men were arrested and put on trial, one of their lawyers suggested that Frank Sinatra Jr. had coordinated the abduction as a publicity stunt. Even after the kidnappers were sent to prison, the false accusation created a lingering sense of suspicion about Mr. Sinatra. During the 1960s, his father’s career continued to flourish with hit records and movie roles, and his sister Nancy found success as a pop singer. But Frank Sinatra Jr. was destined to become a nostalgia act before he turned 25. “Over all these years,” he told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper in 2012, “I have never had a hit movie, never had a hit television program and never had a hit record. To my way of thinking, that means success has not been achieved. I have made no mark of my own creation.” Franklin Wayne Emanuel Sinatra was born Jan. 10, 1944, in Jersey City. He was the second of three children from his father’s first marriage, to the former Nancy Barbato. For years, Mr. Sinatra found modest success singing in lounges and nightclubs and took occasional acting jobs in films and television. In later years, he played himself as a member of a group of poker players on “The Sopranos,” and he did voice-overs of himself in the animated series “Family Guy.” He was married in 1998 to Cynthia McMurrey, a Texas lawyer. They divorced two years later. He had a son, who teaches in Japan, from a previous relationship. Other survivors include his mother and sisters. In 1988, Mr. Sinatra received a call from his father asking him to become his musical director. For seven years, he helped burnish the elder Sinatra’s legend in concerts all over the world. He kept his back to the audience, wearing a tuxedo with a dull finish because he didn’t want to outshine his father. If the band made a mistake in rehearsal, the singer often berated his son, who took the abuse as part of his musical and filial duty. If his father forgot the lyrics to a song, his son would sing them while conducting, as if to guide his father back on course. Mr. Sinatra described himself as his father’s “aide-de-camp.” “I have to see that my general is prepared at all times,” he told GQ magazine in 1994, “that he never goes into battle unprepared.” Frank Sinatra gave his final performance in 1995 and died three years later at 82. His son kept the flame alive until the end, traveling all over the world with a show called “Sinatra Sings Sinatra.” Even after his father’s death, Mr. Sinatra maintained a sense of formality and distance toward him. He rarely spoke of him as “Dad” or “my father,” but would call him “Frank Sinatra,” as if talking about a stranger. “My lack of success does not trouble me at this stage in my life, no,” he said in 2012. “When I was younger, sure, I wanted to have some degree of, shall we say, identity. But it never came.” Read more Washington Post obituaries : Anita Brookner, Booker Prize-winning author of ruminative novels, dies at 87 John W. Cahn, who fled Nazi Germany and became a foremost materials scientist, dies at 88 Peggy Girshman, journalist who co-founded Kaiser Health News, dies at 61 Matt Schudel Matt Schudel has been an obituary writer at The Washington Post since 2004. He previously worked for publications in Washington, New York, North Carolina and Florida. Follow	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513144
__label__wiki	0.953013	0.953013	Mets, Marlins walk off field in social injustice protest Miami Marlins center fielder Lewis Brinson walks away from home plate after placing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt on home plate as his teammates and the New York Mets walk off the field Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, in New York. The Mets and Marlins jointly walked off the field after a moment of silence as they chose not to start their scheduled baseball game Thursday night. (John Minchillo/Associated Press) By Jerry Beach \| AP August 28, 2020 at 12:22 a.m. UTC NEW YORK — The New York Mets and Miami Marlins jointly walked off the field after a moment of silence, draping a Black Lives Matter T-shirt across home plate as they chose not to play Thursday night. After other games around baseball were postponed to protest social injustice, the Mets were late to take the field Thursday and never submitted a lineup to the public or the umpires. Neither starting pitcher threw any warmup pitches. The teams stood around their dugouts in full uniforms shortly before the 7:10 p.m. scheduled first pitch, and the national anthem was played and all players and coaches stood. Mets outfielder Dominic Smith — a Black man who wept Wednesday night while discussing the shooting by police of a Black man in Wisconsin over the weekend — led New York onto the field. Players took their positions, then reserves and coaches filed out of both dugouts and stood silently for 42 seconds. Members on each team doffed caps towards the other side before returning to their clubhouses, leaving only the black T-shirt at home. “The words on the shirt speak for themselves, just having it in the center of everything, just knowing that both teams are unified, and that we agreed to do this,” said Marlins outfielder Lewis Brinson, who was Miami’s leadoff hitter and stood near the batter’s box for the silent display. “And it was the right thing to do.” The scene capped a whirlwind 20-hour span that began with Smith’s emotional press conference following the Mets’ 5-4 victory. “It really touched all of us in the clubhouse, just to see how powerful his statements were, how emotional he was,” Conforto said “He’s our brother, so we stand behind him and we stand behind (Black Mets outfielder) Billy (Hamilton). All the players who stand up against the racial injustice, we stand behind them. And that’s what you saw tonight.” Both teams held clubhouse meetings Thursday afternoon before Conforto, the Mets’ player representative, met with Brinson and Miguel Rojas, the Marlins’ player rep. Conforto said Rojas came up with the idea of the teams walking off the field, and that it came together at the last minute. Conforto and Smith were seen talking with Brinson and Rojas as the teams warmed up. “We wanted to do something special,” Rojas said. “We wanted to do something different.” Smith, who implored people to give their time to inner-city communities on Wednesday night, said he’d heard from players in the NBA and NFL as well as baseball players such as Jack Flaherty who were interested in donating money and time to his foundation. “It’s still overwhelming at this moment, just to see how moved my peers are, my teammates, my brothers, the front office, the coaching staff, everybody who talks to me on a daily basis,” Smith said. “Just to see how moved they were, it made me feel really good inside. It made me feel like we are on the right path of change.” The 42-second moment of silence came a day before Major League Baseball plans to hold its annual Jackie Robinson Day, which was pushed back from the usual April 15 due to the pandemic. “It needs to be an ongoing thing,” Brinson said. “It can’t just be one day out of the baseball year that we bring light to everything.” The teams walked off about two hours after a video appeared on the league’s official website in which Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen said that his players did not want to play and they were waiting to hear from the Marlins about coordinating a postponement. Van Wagenen also criticized Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred’s handling of player protests this week and alleged Manfred was pressuring New York to stage a symbolic walkout against players’ wishes, rather than a full postponement. “That’s Rob’s instinct,” Van Wagenen said in a conversation he didn’t appear to know was being streamed on MLB.com. “At a leadership level, he doesn’t get it. He just doesn’t get it.” Van Wagenen said in the video — after specifying the conversation “can’t leave this room” — that Manfred wanted the Mets and Marlins to walk off the field together shortly before the scheduled 7:10 p.m. first pitch, then come back and play at 8:10 p.m. Van Wagenen apologized for his comments later Thursday, saying in a statement the idea to walk out and return was actually hatched by Mets Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon. “I have put myself and this organization into this conversation in a way that takes away from the real point,” Van Wagenen said on a conference call Thursday night. “I’m disappointed in myself.” Manfred said in a statement that he has not tried to override players’ wishes to protest by not playing. “Over the past two days, players on a number of Clubs have decided not to play games,” he said. “I have said both publicly and privately that I respect those decisions and support the need to address social injustice. I have not attempted in any way to prevent players from expressing themselves by not playing, nor have I suggested any alternative form of protest to any Club personnel or any player. Any suggestion to the contrary is wrong.” Wilpon also said in a statement that the walkoff-and-return plan was his. “To clear up any misunderstandings, it was my suggestion to potentially look into playing the game later because of scheduling issues,” Wilpon said. “Brody’s misunderstanding of a private conversation was and is inexcusable. “We fully respect our players and the Marlins players decision to not play tonight and appreciate the sincerity of all those who wish to draw attention to social injustices and racial inequalities that must be addressed. The entire Mets organization remains committed to creating meaningful change in our society.” Van Wagenen said he didn’t know how or when the Mets and Marlins, who were scheduled to complete their season series Thursday, would make up the game. The only mutual day off remaining for both teams is Monday.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513145
__label__wiki	0.711871	0.711871	USGS: 4.7-magnitude earthquake reported off Ocean City coast Updated: 10:05 PM EST Jan 15, 2019 WEBVTT TO PREVENT CRASHES LIKE THIS FROM HAPPENING IN THE FUTURE. FIRST, THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY POINTS TO A EARTHQUAKE HAPPENING OFF THE COAST. ASHLEY HAPPENED AROUND 6:30 P.M., AND THIS MAP IS SHOWINGS WITH EARTHQUAKE TO There was an earthquake Tuesday night off the coast of Ocean City, according to the United States Geological Survey.USGS said a 4.7-magnitude earthquake was reported around 6:30 p.m. more than 136 miles east-southeast of Ocean City.USGS said the location was 37.240°N, 73.007°W.Refresh wbaltv.com and our app, and watch 11 News for late-breaking updates. OCEAN CITY, Md. — There was an earthquake Tuesday night off the coast of Ocean City, according to the United States Geological Survey. USGS said a 4.7-magnitude earthquake was reported around 6:30 p.m. more than 136 miles east-southeast of Ocean City. USGS said the location was 37.240°N, 73.007°W. Refresh wbaltv.com and our app, and watch 11 News for late-breaking updates. U.S. Geological Survey confirms 4.7 magnitude #earthquake off the coast of Ocean City. https://t.co/K4b7CpAuqq pic.twitter.com/JffcKwhrDt — Maryland DNR (@MarylandDNR) January 16, 2019 Get WBAL-TV 11 News On The Go	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513147
__label__cc	0.716742	0.283258	Will EEOC's Public Portal Lead to an Increase in EEOC Charges? A client recently asked me whether I thought that the EEOC’s new online public portal would lead to an avalanche of new charges. Having visited the portal, I think those fears are unfounded. The first thing that employers should be aware of is that the new system does not allow employees to file charges of discrimination. The portal simply allows a potential charging party to submit an initial complaint and request an intake interview. Charges of discrimination will still need to be prepared by the EEOC, and only after an in-person interview of the charging party. The EEOC’s online portal, however, will facilitate some aspects of the process. For example, once a charge has been prepared, an individual will be allowed to digitally sign the charge and file it electronically. Moreover, if an individual uses the portal, it will be easier for the EEOC to keep in touch with the charging party who has moved — not unusual for someone who has lost their job — since they will now have the individual’s email. For these reasons, there may be a slight increase in the number of charges and the changes may hasten the processing and advancement of a claim. On the other hand, one thing that the electronic public portal does do is determine whether the individual’s claim is likely to be barred by limitations because it asks the individual to enter the date on which the discriminatory action occurred. If the individual enters a date more than 300 days earlier (or depending on the state identified, 180 days earlier), the individual will be notified that “from the information that you have given us, it appears that your time has run out.” At the end of the day, I don’t think that the new portal is going to make much of a difference to employers.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513148
__label__cc	0.699381	0.300619	Operation Trickery Deception During WWII by James Howell Countdown to Atomgeddon - Europe James Howell Opoeration Trickery Countdown to Atomgeddon Operation Trickery is a book or historical fiction about World War II. It is intended to present another side of a savage war that killed millions and destroyed much of Europe. War is often complicated yet simple. Some battles were won or lost by the smallest error or deception. Some incidents were classified until 2005. Some rather horrible incidents were humorous in their intent and result. The book is about civilian soldiers thrown into battle sometimes with no purpose but to obey orders. It is about those decisions and quick responses that often are the difference between life and death. The characters are typical of most soldiers during the war and wish only to stop fighting and go home to their sweethearts and loved ones. James Howell is a retired sales executive now living in Georgetown, Texas. He served in the Army between the Korean and Vietnam wars when the Cold War was at it’s hottest. He has a fascination for military history and tries to stay true to facts while writing fiction. His first three books are about the race to build the first atomic bomb. The first and hopefully the last time a nuclear weapon has been used in combat. Thankfully, the war ended with the detonation of the bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus saving millions of combatant and private lives. Operation Trickery is about the small battles and deception that helped win the war in Europe months ahead of the end of the war in the Pacific.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513158
__label__cc	0.541326	0.458674	Zero Dollar Tips - Android and Windows 10 Tutorials Zero Dollar Tips offers Android and Windows 10 tutorials, Free Software, Google Chrome, Windows Update, Tech Reviews, and How to fix guides etc. What Does Amazon Prime Have That Netflix Doesn’t? Published on January 25, 2018 By Amit Kumar Want to know which is the best video streaming service between Netflix and Amazon Prime Video? Or what does Amazon Prime have that Netflix doesn’t? If you are reading this Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video comparison guide, it means you want to know what does Amazon Prime have that Netflix doesn’t? Or, which is the best video streaming service between these two? Is that right? Well, those days are gone when we used to download movies in HD Quality from the popular free movie downloading sites or just wait for our favorite TV shows to broadcast on the Television so that we can watch it while munching our favorite butter popcorn. People no longer want to use the Blu-Ray discs, DVD’s to watch movies as now is the time of video streaming services. Video on demand or video streaming services can be used to watch TV shows, movies, documentaries and what not on our TV, laptops or even mobile phones. Nowadays, there are countless of live video streaming services, movie streaming sites, and online TV streaming services available on the web which you can use to watch movies online or enjoy your favorite TV shows online and two of the best options which you can consider are Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. Yes, you heard right! Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are the most popular and best video streaming services available worldwide and have a wide collection of TV shows, movies, songs, podcasts, and much more. In case, you are using Kodi media center to consolidate all your media (videos, photos, and music etc.) in one place, with a customizable interface then you would find these best Kodi addons surprisingly helpful for you. Now, let’s focus on the Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video comparison and find out what does Amazon Prime have that Netflix doesn’t? Here we go: Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video: Which is the Best Video Streaming Service? What is Amazon Prime Video? Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video – Features What are the Best Features of Netflix? What are the Best Features of Amazon Prime Video? Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video – Subscription Price How Much Does Netflix Cost a Month? How Much Does Amazon Prime Cost a Month? Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video – Supported Devices What Devices Can you Watch Netflix On? What Devices can you Watch Amazon Prime Instant Video On? Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video – Movies & TV Shows What are Some Good Movies and TV Shows to Watch on Netflix? What are Some Good Movies and TV Shows to Watch on Amazon Prime? If you are new to the concept of streaming videos online then you might be confused while selecting the right video streaming solutions for you. In order to use any online video streaming services out of these two (Netflix and Amazon Prime Video), you have to pay the subscription amount so it is quite ideal to do a little research or read a little bit and find out what they are offering. In this Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video comparison guide, we are going to cover different features offered, the devices which are compatible, price and which you can actually watch on them etc. But before we begin our Amazon Prime Video vs Netflix Comparison, let’s give a brief introduction. Do you know? How to Download Movies from Hotstar on Android and Computer Netflix is an online video streaming website (founded back in 1997) that allows you to watch a wide variety of award-winning TV shows, popular movies, documentaries from different countries and more on thousands of Internet-connected devices. During its initial days, Netflix was known for online demand DVD service which was provided to customers via mail. However, the company expanded its business and started producing the movies and TV shows from the year 2013. There are many TV series which are produced by Netflix and are loved by millions of subscribers. Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Sherlock, and Friends etc. are some of the highest-rated Netflix TV shows. As per the recent stats, it was seen that there are 93 million Netflix subscribers out of which 49 million Netflix subscribers reside only in the United States. Whether you want to watch TV shows online, watch Movies online, stream TV shows in HD, or stream on your phone or TV‎, Netflix is always on the top of the list of best video streaming services that provide you the options to enjoy unlimited viewing of content without having to watch a single commercial. You may also be interested in checking out: How to Delete Continue Watching on Netflix How to Fix Netflix Error Code M7121-1331-P7 in Windows 10 How to Fix Netflix Error Code U7353 in Windows 10 How to Change Netflix Password on Computer and Mobile Phones Amazon Prime Video or Amazon Instant Video is quite similar to Netflix streaming. In simple words, Amazon Prime Instant Video‎ is a video streaming service available for Amazon Prime members. You can watch unlimited online movies and TV shows online just by purchasing Amazon Prime Membership. Amazon Prime is having a huge database of movies and TV shows which you can watch for unlimited hours. It also offers 30-day free trial which you can cancel anytime you want. Both Netflix and Amazon Prime video streaming sites are having amazing features and you can find out what features you are going to get by reading the next section of this post. Here we go: Most of the online streaming services come with the legacy method of rating TV shows which Netflix is about to change. Netflix has introduced a new liking, disliking option which will allow you to like or dislike any video or TV show which you didn’t like. This feature is going to be the replacement to the star rating. Once you have paid for the Netflix subscription, you can watch unlimited entertaining content for free. There are no restrictions as you can watch any TV show or movie as everything is covered under one subscription. If you are having a Smart TV at your home, you can launch the Netflix app on your TV and login with your account details and start watching TV shows. Not only you can use Netflix on your smart TV but also on set-top boxes, gaming consoles, and many other devices too. One of the best features which you would love in Netflix is offline streaming. Yes, you read correct “Netflix Offline Streaming”. It means you can download Netflix TV shows on your computer and watch them later even if you are not having a working internet connection. It is ideal that you are having a single streaming account and would like to share it with multiple users, well it is possible with Netflix. You can create multiple users under a single Netflix account. Addition to this, you can also check which user is currently taking access to Netflix TV shows or Netflix movies with the account you shared. The Netflix search feature also comes into play as it helps you to search for some very good TV shows to watch on Netflix. You can also use the kid-friendly section on Netflix which is primarily focused on your kids. Isn’t it great? Well, there are plenty of good features offered by the Amazon Prime video but not much as compared to what Netflix has to offer. If you are wondering – What do you get with amazon prime? Or what does Amazon prime have that Netflix doesn’t? There is not much change as compared to what Netflix has to offer. Amazon Prime Instant Video also supports multiple devices which mean you can use your Smart TV to log in to your Amazon Prime Video account. Watching Amazon Video offline is a quite interesting option. You can use the offline video feature to download amazon instant video TV series and enjoy later without an active Internet connection. Sorry to say, but you don’t get the option to create multiple users account under one Amazon Prime subscription which we saw on Netflix. The only feature which might become your reason to select Amazon Prime Video streaming over Netflix streaming is that you can even watch videos in 4K Ultra HD without any extra cost as in Netflix you have to pay extra money in order to watch videos in 4K Ultra HD resolution. All the Movies, TV Shows, and other video contents which are available on Amazon Prime Video can be watched with single subscription and you don’t need to pay any extra money to watch a premium video. While Amazon Prime Video is offering you the value for money, the content which Prime Video has to offer is limited and selective devices are only compatible with Amazon Prime Instant Video. Price is an important factor to consider in pretty much everything. If you are wondering how much is a Netflix subscription price or how much does amazon prime cost? then this membership price comparison section is going to help you a lot. One thing which is common on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video is that both the video streaming services are offering the 30-day trial. According to us, the 30-day free trial is one of the best ways of finding out what does amazon prime have that Netflix doesn’t. If you want to go for the monthly subscription, you have to shed out $7.99 a month. You get the basic subscription for this price which allows you to watch Netflix TV shows only on one screen at a time. This means that you can’t share your account with multiple users under the basic plan. You also don’t get HD content under this plan. In case, if you want to watch TV shows and stream content in HD then you will have to pay $9.99 a month. With this plan, you can stream content on two devices at the same time. The third subscription plan which you can go for is Netflix Premium plan which is available for $11.99 a month and offers 4K ultra HD video. The numbers of devices which you can connect under this plan are 4. After viewing these Netflix subscription plans, we think that your question of how much is a Netflix subscription is answered perfectly. Want to know in details? Check out the Netflix Streaming Plans info page. Now let’s talk about the competitor, Amazon Prime Video. As Amazon Prime is fairly new, you can get the Prime Video basic plan for $8.99 per month or Prime monthly for $10.99 per month. You can also go for an annual plan which is available only for $99 for a year. The annual plan comes with many features for free of cost such as Amazon Prime Music, free next day delivery etc. The annual plan will cost you $8.25 per month which we think is not bad. So if you are ordering regularly on Amazon and think that the video library is enough for you then Amazon Prime Video is the online streaming service you need to go for. You are allowed to stream to two devices at the same time under Amazon Prime Video account. As there is only one basic plan which is split into monthly and yearly, there are no other options which you can consider. Want to know about the cost of amazon prime per month in details? Check out the Amazon Prime Membership Charge info page. Isn’t it amazing that you can watch your favorite TV shows and movies not only on your laptop but also on your Smart TV’s, gaming consoles and many other gadgets? Both Amazon Instant Video and Netflix support different devices and you can find out the compatible devices below. If you are having a phone, tablet or a laptop then you can easily access your Netflix account on that. Along with these basic devices, there are many other devices which are internet ready and can be used by integrating with your Netflix account. Here’s the list of Netflix supported devices: Smart TV – A lot of manufacturers are launching Smart TV’s these days and they are in huge demand. What these Smart TV’s do is that they are internet ready and allow one to install applications on them such as Netflix, YouTube, and many others. The Smart TV’s on which you can use your Netflix account are LG, Panasonic, Sony, Philips, Toshiba, Xbox One and Samsung. Gaming Consoles – Gaming consoles are no more used only for gaming as if you are having any of the below-mentioned gaming consoles, you can use your Netflix account on it. Xbox One and Xbox 360 from Microsoft are compatible whereas if we talk about Sony, you can use Netflix on PS3 and PS4. Wii and Wii U also make the list. Tablets – Two of the widely used Tablet operating systems are Android and iOS, so if you are having any tablet which is running on Android OS or Apple iOS such as Apple iPad you can use Netflix on them. Smartphones – Just like tablets, an operating system is the thing which matters here. Netflix is available on three major mobile operating systems which are Android, iOS and Windows Phone, so if you are having any smartphone which comes with any of these three smartphone operating systems, you can use it with your Netflix account. Bluray Player – Toshiba, Philips, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony make the list. Home Cinema System – Just imagine the joy you would be having watching Netflix TV shows on your home cinema system. If you are having LG or Sony Home cinema system then you are in luck as both these home cinema systems are compatible. Set-Top Box – The Set-Top box which supports Netflix or Amazon Prime Video is available in limited countries. TalkTalk, YouView, Sony and Virgin Media are the compatible Set-top box. Media Streamer – If you are having media streamer from Google Chrome cast, Virgin Media, Philips, Apple TV, Western Digital or Roku, you can use Netflix. You might also like to know: How to Play PS3 Games on PS4 using PlayStation Now The supported devices categories are almost the same for Amazon Prime instant video, so we won’t explain what particular category is going to do as it won’t change. The Amazon Prime compatible devices, however, are mentioned below: Smart TV – LG, Sony, Samsung and Panasonic Gaming Consoles – PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U and Wii. Tablet – iPad, Amazon Fire, and Android. As Amazon Fire is manufactured by Amazon this makes it possible for one to use their Amazon Prime account on their Amazon Fire tablet. Smartphone – Amazon Prime video is only available for iPhone and Android. If you are having Windows Phone you need to wait to get the Windows Phone version of the application. Blu-Ray Player – Sony and Samsung are the compatible Blu-ray players. Home Cinema – Sony, LG, and Samsung make to list in case of Amazon Prime Video. Set-Top Box – Only Samsung Set-box box can run Amazon Prime video on it. Media Streamer – There are many media streamers which you can use on Amazon Prime video. Some of these streamers are Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV. We have discussed features, Price, and supported devices. Now if you are wondering how many movies are on Netflix or what do you get with amazon prime in terms of TV shows and movies, you can read the comparison below. Netflix is a long time providing video on demand services and there are many TV series produced by them. You will be able to watch most of the movies and TV shows which are available out there on Netflix but there are few original series which are only available on Netflix and they are pretty good. Some of the best TV shows which make to original web series by Netflix are Better Call Saul, Daredevil, Orange is the New Black, Bloodline, House or Cards and Making a Murderer which is a documentary. Top 20 Best Netflix TV Shows You Must Watch: Orange Is the New Black (Since 2013): Piper Chapman is sent to prison for a 15-month stint after being charged with transporting drugs. In prison, she is reacquainted with Alex, her former lover. She must change to adapt to prison life. House of Cards (Since 2013): Frank Underwood is a Democrat appointed as the Secretary of State. Along with his wife, he sets out on a quest to seek revenge from the people who betrayed him while successfully rising to supremacy. Arrested Development (2003–2013): After his father’s arrest, Michael, a widower with a 13-year-old son, named George-Michael, struggles to keep his dysfunctional family together. Daredevil (Since 2015): The first in a planned series of shows detailing the Marvel universe, “Daredevil” follows Matt Murdock, an attorney by day and vigilante by night. Master of None (Since 2015): Comic Aziz Ansari and writer Alan Yang are the creators of this Netflix-original comedy, which is loosely based on Ansari’s real-life experiences. Jessica Jones (Since 2015): This Netflix original chronicles the life of one of the darker Marvel characters, the mysterious Jessica Jones. BoJack Horseman (Since 2014): A humanoid horse, BoJack Horseman — lost in a sea of self-loathing and booze — decides it’s time for a comeback. Stranger Things (Since 2016): This thrilling Netflix-original drama stars award-winning actress Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, who lives in a small Indiana town in 1983 – inspired by a time when tales of science fiction captivated audiences. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Since 2015): Rescued after 15 years in a cult, Kimmy Schmidt decides to reclaim her life by venturing to New York, where she experiences everyday life with wide-eyed enthusiasm. Narcos (Since 2015): Netflix takes on the infamous Medellín drug cartel in “Narcos,” which follows the rise and fall of Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar and the Drug Enforcement Agency agents hunting him. Firefly (Since 2002): Set 500 years in the future after a universal civil war, the crew of a small transport spaceship takes any job so long as it puts food on the table. Black Mirror (Since 2011): An anthology series that revolves around a group of people’s personal lives and how technology manipulates their behavior. Luke Cage (Since 2016): This gritty, action-packed drama follows the evolution of Luke Cage (Mike Colter), a man with super strength and unbreakable skin caused by a sabotaged experiment. Making a Murderer (Since 2015): Exonerated after spending nearly two decades in prison for a crime he did not commit, Steven Avery filed suit against Manitowoc County, Wis., and several individuals involved with his arrest. Sense8 (Since 2015): Eight strangers around the globe find themselves connected — first by a violent vision, then by their shared ability to connect with one another’s thoughts and actions, and finally by the urgent need to find out what happened and why. Better Call Saul (Since 2015): Jimmy McGill, a struggling lawyer in Albuquerque, tries to make a decent living even as he gets involved with criminals. The Killing (2011 – 2014): A crime series that follows the police investigation of the murder of a young girl. It interlocks three different stories. Bloodline (Since 2015): From the creators of “Damages,” “Bloodline” is a dramatic thriller that explores the demons lurking beneath the surface of a contemporary American family. Iron Fist (Since 2017): When Danny Rand was 10-years old, he survived a mysterious plane crash that claimed the lives of his extremely wealthy parents. The Crown (Since 2016): Based on an award-winning play (“The Audience”) by showrunner Peter Morgan, this lavish, Netflix-original drama chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth II (Claire Foy) from the 1940s to modern times. We hope, you got some great and good TV shows to watch on Netflix. Let us know – Which Netflix TV shows are your favorite? Amazon is also having original web series but the options are limited. You can watch Ripper Street, Constantine, The Man in the High Tower, Extant, Black Sails and Bosch using your Amazon Prime account. One of the benefits which you will find with Amazon Prime Video is that you can browse the entire library without even having any subscription. If we talk about the number of movies which we are going to find both on Amazon Prime and Netflix they are close to 4,000 movies. All the TV shows which are broadcasted are available on Netflix. However, Amazon Prime is pacing by adding new TV shows regularly. Some of the most popular TV shows like FRIENDS which is no more broadcasted are also available on both the video streaming websites. Top 20 Best TV Shows on Amazon Prime Video: Hannibal (2013–2015): Will Graham, an FBI criminal profiler, has an uncanny ability to sympathize with Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a forensic psychiatrist. However, he is unaware that he is a cannibal. Hand of God (Since 2014): Award-winning actor Ron Perlman stars as in this drama the law-bending Judge Pernell Harris, a hard-living married man with a high-end call girl on the side. The Wire (2002–2008): This series looks at the narcotics scene in Baltimore through the eyes of law enforcers as well as the drug dealers and users. The Americans (Since 2013): During the Cold War, two Russian spies, who are married to each other and have kids, pose as Americans while residing in Washington DC, in order to spy on the American government. Justified (2010–2015): Enforcing his own brand of justice, U.S. Marshal Raylan, a strong-willed, quiet law-man haunted by his past, returns to his native town to do what he does best – see that justice is served. The Good Wife (Since 2016): Alicia deals with life and her two children after her husband Peter Florrick, a former State attorney, is imprisoned for a sex and corruption scandal. The Sopranos (1999–2007): Tony Soprano, an Italian-American mafia head based in New Jersey, struggles to manage his family and criminal life and confides his affairs to his psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi. Six Feet Under (2001–2005): When Nathaniel Fisher Sr. dies, he hands over the control of his funeral home business to his sons Nathaniel Samuel Jr. and David. But the brothers and the entire family are caught in a conflict. Downton Abbey (2010–2015): The ambitious desire of Lord Grantham to acquire his ancestral home, Downton Abbey, is crushed by the death of his heir. Treme (2010–2013): Following the aftermath of one of the worst hurricanes in the USA, folks of a community in New Orleans try to rebuild their lives and homes while upholding their unique culture. Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014): Enoch Thompson, the treasurer of Atlantic City, is friends with mobsters and politicians alike, resulting in the federal government taking a special interest in him. The Night Manager (Since 2016): Based on John le Carré’s novel of the same name, “The Night Manager” is a crime drama following the work of former British soldier Jonathan Pine. Mr. Robot (Since 2015): Elliot, a cyber-security engineer suffering from anxiety, works for a corporation and hacks felons by night. Poldark (Since 2015): This all-new version of the vintage Masterpiece series stars Aidan Turner as Capt. Good Girls Revolt (Since 2015): This Amazon-original series is set in New York in the late 1960s, when a cultural revolution was sweeping through the free world. Fleabag (Since 2016): A London-based woman tries to cope with life in a big city while coming to terms with a tragedy. Transparent (Since 2014): Mort has a secret that he really wants to tell his three adult children, who are so self-absorbed they don’t see that something has changed for divorced, girlfriendless dad. Bored to Death (2009–2011): Jonathan Ames is a writer by profession. To overcome boredom he decides to kill time by pretending to be a private detective. One Mississippi (Since 2015): This Amazon original series is a dark comedy inspired by events in comic Tig Notaro’s life. Louie (Since 2010): Louis C. K. has to adjust to his life as a stand-up comedian after he divorces his wife and is shouldered with the responsibility to raise his two daughters in New York City. We hope now you got the answer to what are some good TV shows to watch on Amazon Prime Video? Let us know which Amazon Prime TV Shows is your favorite? If you have read this complete Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video comparison, you would be thinking what does amazon prime video have that Netflix doesn’t as Netflix has aced this comparison. Well, there are few features at which Amazon Prime stand ahead and we have mentioned those features below. You get movies delivered to your home the next day and that too for free of cost which you won’t find on Netflix. Along with that, you get free music streaming service and free eBooks which Netflix doesn’t offer. If you are having Amazon Fire tablet then you can use your Amazon Prime Video account for watching movies and TV shows whereas Netflix is not compatible with Amazon Fire. The original TV series which are produced by Netflix is not available on Amazon Prime Video and same apply to Amazon Prime. The Amazon Prime subscription price is a bit cheaper as compared to Netflix subscription price and you also get to choose between an Annual plan which is not available on Netflix. According to us, Netflix is the clear winner. The video streaming features which you are going to use on Netflix are way better what Amazon Prime Video has to offer. You have to pay a little extra money in order to get the Netflix subscription package but you are going to get a whole lot of extra features for those extra bucks which you are going to spend. If you love to watch new TV shows online and love downloading entire TV seasons then you ought to go for Netflix as it is the best video streaming service you will find on the internet right now. Which on Demand Video service are you using? What are your views on these video streaming services (Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video)? Do you have any better answer regarding what does Amazon Prime have that Netflix doesn’t? Tell us using the comments section below. How to Download Videos from Instagram on Android How to Download Facebook Videos on Android Phone How to Send Large Video Files on WhatsApp Android up to 1GB How to Download Scribd Documents without Download Option How to Turn Regular Downloads into Torrent Downloads Top 25 Best Software Download Sites to Download Free Software for PC openload says How to fix Openload pair error, For Kodi users Openload is a video streaming Kodi plugin. Get Open Load pair, Openload stream authorization details here. Prepaid says Wow, I was reading this article and let me tell you that information is absolutely amazing. Our guides are absolutely free. However, if you want to support us you can send us a donation. Copyright © 2021 - Zero Dollar Tips	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513162
__label__cc	0.609073	0.390927	American Minute Diversions Education Faith Front PageAMERICAN MINUTE The secret to George Washington Carver's success Bill Federer recounts motivation behind brilliant scientist By Bill Federer George Washington Carver George Washington Carver was born a slave during the Civil War, possibly in 1865, but there are no records. Within a few weeks, his father, who belonged to the next farm over, was killed in a log hauling accident. Shortly after the Civil War, bushwhackers from the Democrat South kidnapped infant George with his mother and sister. Moses Carver sent friends to track down the thieves and trade his best horse to retrieve them. The thieves only left baby George, lying on the ground, sick with the whooping cough, an illness which permanently effected his physical constitution. George never saw his mother and sister again. Illness claimed the lives of his two other sisters and they were buried on the Carver farm. George and his older brother, Jim, were raised in Diamond Grove, Missouri, by "Uncle" Moses and "Aunt" Sue Carver, a childless German immigrant couple. In poor health as a child, George stayed near the house helping with chores, learning to cook, clean, sew, mend and wash laundry, skills that he would later use to support himself. His recreation was to spend time in the woods. The Carvers supported George's decision to leave home to attend school in Neosho, Missouri. He paid his own tuition by doing odd jobs. In the intervening years, George Carver drifted from Missouri, to Kansas, to Iowa, working as a cook and doing laundry. He studied at Simpson College, then received a bachelor's and master's degree from Iowa State Agricultural Institute, where he was hired as a teacher. In the Spring of 1896, Booker T. Washington invited George Washington Carver to teach in Alabama: "Tuskegee Institute seeks to provide education – a means for survival to those who attend. Our students are poor, often starving. They travel miles of torn roads, across years of poverty. We teach them to read and write, but words cannot fill stomachs. They need to learn how to plant and harvest crops. ... I cannot offer you money, position or fame. The first two you have. The last, from the place you now occupy, you will no doubt achieve. These things I now ask you to give up. I offer you in their place work – hard, hard work – the challenge of bringing people from degradation, poverty and waste to full manhood." On May 16, 1896, George W. Carver responded to Booker T. Washington: "My dear Sir, I am just in receipt of yours of the 13th inst., and hasten to reply. I am looking forward to a very busy, pleasant and profitable time at your college and shall be glad to cooperate with you in doing all I can through Christ who strengtheneth me to better the condition of our people. Some months ago I read your stirring address delivered at Chicago and I said amen to all you said, furthermore you have the correct solution to the 'race problem.' ... Providence permitting, I will be there in November. God bless you and your work, Geo. W. Carver." Booker T. Washington's solution of the "race problem" was to gain respect through economic independence, the path taken by every wave of immigrants, ie., German, Irish, Jewish, Polish, Italian, Asian, etc. Immigrants arrived at the bottom of the social ladder, often met with racial discrimination. They would work hard, get educated, start businesses, and pool their resources. As they accumulated wealth and made positive contributions to society, they rose in public respect. Booker T. Washington stated: "At the bottom ... there must be for our race, as for all races ... economic prosperity, economic independence. ... Political independence disappears without economic independence." He recommended they: "... concentrate all their energies on industrial education, and accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South ... (then) Blacks would eventually gain full participation in society by showing themselves to be responsible, reliable American citizens." Notable African-American business leaders include: Paul Cuffee (1759-1817) a devout Christian and successful sea captain of an all-black crew who built a shipping empire across the Atlantic James Forten (1766-1842), who made a fortune as a sailmaker in Philadelphia Samuel T. Wilcox (c.1850) built a high-quality wholesale and retail grocery business in Cincinnati, and had pickling and preserving business Stephen Smith (1795-1873) was a black minister who became wealthy building an extensive lumber business in Pennsylvania William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. (1810-1848) established a ship yard, lumber yard, ship chandlery shop, and built San Francisco's first hotel Robert Gordon (c.1846) became a wealthy coal dealer in Cincinnati Free Frank McWorter (1777-1854) started a saltpeter production operation – necessary for gunpowder – which helped during the War of 1812. He was the first black American to found a town – New Philadelphia, Illinois Sarah Breedlove (1867-1919), known as Madam C. J. Walker, developed a line of beauty and hair products and became the first female self-made millionaire in America In 1896, George Washington Carver surprised the staff at Iowa State College by announcing his plans to give up his promising future there and accept Booker T. Washington's offer to teach at Tuskegee Institute. The staff showed their appreciation by purchasing Carver a going away present – a microscope, which he used extensively throughout his career. George assembled an Agricultural Department at Tuskegee. He visited nearby farmers and would teach them farming techniques, such as crop rotation, fertilization and erosion prevention. Carver noticed that the soil was depleted due to years of repeated cotton growth and produced very poorly. During this time, an insect called the boll weevil swept through the South, destroying cotton crops and leaving farmers devastated. George showed the farmers the benefits of crop rotation and planting legumes, such as peanuts, which replenish the soil with nitrogen. Farmers heeded Carver's advice but soon had more peanuts than the market wanted, as peanuts were primarily used as animal feed. George determined to find more uses for the peanut to increase the market for them. Carver is credited with discovering and/or popularizing hundreds of uses for the peanut, soybean, sweet potato, pecan, cowpea, wild plum, and okra, which helped to revolutionize the South's economy. A partial list of items derived from peanuts was compiled by the Carver Museum at Tuskegee: Beverages: Blackberry punch, cherry punch, lemon punch, orange punch, peanut punch, beverage for ice cream, evaporated peanut beverage; dry coffee, instant coffee, 32 different kinds of milk, dehydrated milk flakes, buttermilk Foods: Peanut butter, salted peanuts, peanut flour, peanut flakes, peanut meal, cream from peanut milk, butter from peanut milk, egg yolk, breakfast food, bisque powder, cheese, cream cheese, cheese pimento, cheese sandwich, cheese tutti frutti, cocoa, crystallized peanuts, curds, granulated potatoes, potato nibs, golden nuts, mock coconut, pancake flour, peanut hearts, peanut surprise, peanut wafers, pickle, sweet pickle, shredded peanuts, substitute asparagus George Washington Carver addressed Congress and met with Presidents Teddy Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge and Franklin Roosevelt. He was offered jobs by Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, and received correspondence from world leaders, including Gandhi and Stalin. George Washington Carver died Jan. 5, 1943. In 1928, Dr. Carver stated: "Human need is really a great spiritual vacuum which God seeks to fill. ... With one hand in the hand of a fellow man in need and the other in the hand of Christ, He could get across the vacuum. ... Then the passage, 'I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me,' came to have real meaning." In the summer of 1920, the Young Men's Christian Association of Blue Ridge, North Carolina, invited Professor Carver to speak at their summer school for the southern states. Dr. Willis D. Weatherford, president of Blue Ridge, introduced him as the speaker. With his high voice surprising the audience, Dr. Carver exclaimed humorously: "I always look forward to introductions as opportunities to learn something about myself. ..." He continued: "Years ago I went into my laboratory and said, 'Dear Mr. Creator, please tell me what the universe was made for?' The Great Creator answered, 'You want to know too much for that little mind of yours. Ask for something more your size, little man.' Then I asked, 'Please, Mr. Creator, tell me what man was made for.' Again the Great Creator replied, 'You are still asking too much. Cut down on the extent and improve the intent.' So then I asked, 'Please, Mr. Creator, will you tell me why the peanut was made?' 'That's better, but even then it's infinite. What do you want to know about the peanut?' 'Mr. Creator, can I make milk out of the peanut?' 'What kind of milk do you want? Good Jersey milk or just plain boarding house milk?' 'Good Jersey milk.' And then the Great Creator taught me to take the peanut apart and put it together again. And out of the process have come forth all these products!" Among the numerous products displayed was a bottle of good Jersey milk. Three-and-a-half ounces of peanuts produced one pint of rich milk or one quart of raw "skim" milk, called boarding house "blue john" milk. On Nov. 19, 1924, Carver spoke to over 500 people at the Women's Board of Domestic Missions: "God is going to reveal to us things He never revealed before if we put our hands in His. No books ever go into my laboratory. The thing I am to do and the way are revealed to me the moment I am inspired to create something new. Without God to draw aside the curtain, I would be helpless. Only alone can I draw close enough to God to discover His secrets." On March 24, 1925, Carver wrote to Robert Johnson, an employee of Chesley Enterprises of Ontario: "Thank God I love humanity; complexion doesn't interest me one single bit." Though from a disadvantaged background, George did not let this pull him down into self-pity, bitterness, or yielding to a hateful victim-hood mentality. Discover more of Bill Federer's eye-opening books and videos in the WND Superstore! On March 1, 1927, George W. Carver wrote to Jack Boyd, a YMCA official in Denver, Colorado: "My beloved friend, keep your hand in that of the Master, walk daily by His side, so that you may lead others into the realms of true happiness, where a religion of hate, (which poisons both body and soul) will be unknown, having in its place the 'Golden Rule' way, which is the 'Jesus Way' of life, will reign supreme. ... Then, we can walk and talk with Jesus momentarily, because we will be attuned to His will and wishes. ... God, my beloved friend is infinite the highest embodiment of love. We are finite, surrounded and often filled with hate. We can only understand the infinite as we loose the finite and take on the infinite." This was also the attitude of Booker T. Washington, who wrote in "Up From Slavery" (1901): "It is now long ago that I learned this lesson from General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, and resolved that I would permit no man, no matter what his color might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. With God's help, I believe that I have completely rid myself of any ill feeling toward the Southern white man for any wrong that he may have inflicted upon my race. I am made to feel just as happy now when I am rendering service to Southern white men as when the service is rendered to a member of my own race. I pity from the bottom of my heart any individual who is so unfortunate as to get into the habit of holding race prejudice." On July 10, 1924, George Washington Carver wrote to James Hardwick: "God cannot use you as He wishes until you come into the fullness of His Glory. Do not get alarmed, my friend, when doubts creep in. That is old Satan. Pray, pray, pray. Oh, my friend, I am praying that God will come in and rid you entirely of self so you can go out after souls right, or rather have souls seek the Christ in you. This is my prayer for you always." Brought to you by AmericanMinute.com. Receive Bill Federer's American Minutes in your email BONUS: By signing up for these alerts, you will also be signed up for news and special offers from WND via email. Where we will email your daily updates A valid zip code or postal code is required Bill Federer William J. Federer is the author of "Change to Chains: The 6,000 Year Quest for Global Control" and "What Every American Needs to Know About the Quran: A History of Islam and the United States." Sometimes even pastors must go to war What was the Great Awakening all about? The life of Louis Pasteur: From death to triumph What happens when people lose their virtue The amazing legacy of Daniel Boone	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513166
__label__wiki	0.76623	0.76623	News28 Oct 2015 Kemboi chasing records at Beirut Marathon Kenyan Marathon runner Elijah Kemboi Success breeds success and with its IAAF Silver Label status, organisers of the Banque du Liban Beirut Marathon on 8 November are attracting a higher class of athletes every year. Leading the field for the 13th edition of this annual race is Kenya’s Elijah Kiprono Kemboi. Since debuting at the 2008 Nairobi Marathon, the 31-year-old Kemboi has earned victories at the 2011 Antwerp and Kosice marathons and lowered his personal best to 2:07:34 at the 2013 Frankfurt Marathon. Beirut organisers are expecting him to come ready to race after preparations in his group’s training camp these past several months. It is the camaraderie within the camp that most contributes to athletes such as Kemboi getting through the arduous training sessions. “I am training in Kaptagat and Kitale with a small group,” Kemboi says. “I train with Leonard Komon (world 10km and 15km record-holder) and Abraham Cheroben under coach Juma Ndiwa. “I run about 130 kilometres in a week with two speed sessions and a hill training session. After the morning session, we take tea. Mostly we do our sessions early in the morning at 6:00am, come back for tea and then do a new session around noon. At 6:00pm the day is over as it is getting dark.” Earlier this year, Kemboi finished sixth at the Warsaw Marathon in 2:08:29, just 32 seconds behind the winner. Asked to compare his fitness then and now, he holds his cards fairly close to his chest. “I feel OK,” he says. “The only bad luck I had was a minor sickness in early September. There I lost some training. But my preparation is going well. I did the pace work in the Eindhoven Marathon (on 11 October) leading until 23km (passing 21km in 1:02:23). I am on schedule now. Based on the long runs, some as long as 32 kilometres, I can measure my current shape.” Kemboi is fully aware that the winner will receive US $10,000 with time bonuses added to that. The 2:11:13 course record, set in 2011 by Ethiopia’s Tariku Jufar, also comes with a hefty bonus, depending on how much it is beaten by. Should Kemboi run faster than 2:09:00 and prove victorious, it would mean another $13,000. A winning sub-2:08 clocking would result in a $25,000 bonus. Also racing in Beirut is Ethiopia’s Edeo Mamo, Jackson Limo of Kenya and Bahrain’s Isaac Korir. “I would like to come to Beirut to win the competition,” says Kemboi. “I will do my best to improve the current course record. I heard also that the course is slightly changed in a faster way.” Elite athlete coordinator Hussein Makke, a Lebanese-born US sports manager, has assigned two pacemakers to take the field out to 25km at course record pace. Like most Kenyan professional marathoners, the money Kemboi earns from racing abroad contributes to his future. Kemboi was born in the shadow of Mount Elgon in the same region as his training partners. There he took inspiration and encouragement from his older brothers who introduced him to running. Having achieved financial success through his road racing, he now feels an obligation to provide for those less fortunate than himself. His earnings thus far have been invested in a small farm for a future beyond his athletics career. “Kenya is my beloved home country,” he says. “I am proud to be a Kenyan and to represent my country abroad. Running is a way of life in Kenya.” The temperatures in Beirut even in the early morning are likely to be quite warm, but Kemboi has a task in mind. And his success will further enhance the Beirut Marathon’s reputation as a jewel of the Mediterranean. Paul Gains (organisers) for the IAAF Elijah Kiprono Kemboi World Athletics Label Road Races Radcliffe an ambassador for Beirut Marathon ... Girma and Tsega victorious at Beirut Marathon... Kemboi and Damantsevich beat the heat in Kosi...	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513167
__label__wiki	0.981003	0.981003	UK asks regulator to assess AZ-Oxford vaccine amid questions This undated photo issued by the University of Oxford shows of vial of coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, in Oxford, England. Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said Monday Nov. 23, 2020, that late-stage trials showed its coronavirus vaccine was up to 90% effective, giving public health officials hope they may soon have access to a vaccine that is cheaper and easier to distribute than some of its rivals. (University of Oxford/John Cairns via AP) LONDON (AP) — The British government said Friday it has formally asked the country’s medicines regulator to assess whether a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University should be authorized for use. The step comes amid questions about preliminary results from trials of the jab, after the company and the university acknowledged that the most encouraging part of their findings stemmed from a dosing error. U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he had asked the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to determine whether the vaccine “meets rigorous safety standards.” It’s the second vaccine candidate to reach the formal assessment stage in Britain, following a shot developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. A third vaccine from U.S. firm Moderna is not far behind. The British government has ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, and plans to start distributing it in December if it gains approval. The regulator said it could not give a time frame for possible approval of the vaccines MHRA Chief Executive June Raine said “no vaccine would be authorized for supply in the U.K. unless the expected standards of safety, quality and efficacy are met.” Oxford and AstraZeneca reported Monday that their vaccine appeared to be 62% effective in people who received two doses, and 90% effective when volunteers were given a half dose followed by a full dose. They did not mention at the time, but later acknowledged, that a manufacturing issue had resulted in “a half dose of the vaccine being administered as the first dose” to some participants. The drugmakers informed the U.K. regulator of the issue when it was discovered, and it was agreed to complete the late-stage trial with two groups. AstraZeneca has said it plans to conduct a new global clinical trial to assess the vaccine’s efficacy but does not expect that to delay regulatory approval in Britain or the European Union — though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration may take longer. Some scientists have expressed concerns about gaps in the data and the way the results were reported. Only 2,741 people received the half dose, making it hard to know if the effectiveness seen in the group is real or a statistical quirk. A total of 8,895 people received two full doses. Eleanor Riley, professor of Immunology and Infectious Disease at the University of Edinburgh, said Oxford and AstraZeneca needed to answer questions about their results “clearly and completely.” “Trust is at a premium when it comes to vaccines and we must not do anything that might in any way undermine that trust,” she said. Full results are due to be published in medical journal The Lancet, though no date has been given. Pfizer and BioNTech said earlier this month that their vaccine is 95% effective, and Moderna said its product appears to be 94.5% effective, according to preliminary data. Unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab does not need to be stored at freezer temperatures, making it potentially easier to distribute, especially in developing countries. It is also cheaper, because AstraZeneca has agreed not to profit from it during the pandemic. The British government and its scientific advisers have expressed confidence that multiple vaccines will win approval, but say all decisions are up to the regulator. “They will make an assessment with lots of data that is not currently public domain on efficacy and on safety,” said England’s Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty. “I think it’s always a mistake to make too many judgements early before we have the full information and particularly before the regulator, the independent regulator, has had their chance to look at the data and make an assessment.” Showers in the Vicinity Showers in the Vicinity 0% 64° 52° Full list: All the pardons and commutations issued by President Trump in 2021 Bill O’Brien named new Crimson Tide offensive coordinator	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513168
__label__wiki	0.539978	0.539978	Tunisia's CA Bizertin Thrash Dynamos Dynamos Football Club players WASHINGTON — CA Bizertin of Tunisia thrashed Dynamos Football Club 3-0 on Sunday in the capital, Tunis, in the first leg of the first round of the Africa Champions League. The Zimbabwean champions fell in the second half after holding the Tunisians 0-0 in the first half at Octobre 15 Stadium. The Tunisians then scored three goals within 20 minutes in the second half. According to press reports, the match was watched by only 3,000 fans due to security concerns in the city. The second round match will be played in Harare within the next two weeks. Dynamos expect to score at least four goals in Harare without conceding a goal in order to proceed to the next round of the prestigious tournament.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513172
__label__wiki	0.635215	0.635215	© Photo: Getty Images Of Course Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is A Telfar Fan By Liam Hess 21 August 2020 Anyone with even a passing interest in fashion will have noticed that every few weeks, their Twitter timeline is hit with a flurry of disappointed posts bemoaning the fact the latest drop of Telfar’s It-bag has come and gone. Famously nicknamed the “Bushwick Birkin,” the bag is prized not only for its affordable price tag but also the spirit of community it represents, a fact the designer recently described to Vogue as “beautiful”. © Photo courtesy of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Instagram / @aoc Due to both high demand from customers, and bots and resellers emptying the entire stock within second, Telfar came up with an ingenious solution to the problem: launching a 24-hour pre-order sale that would allow everyone the chance to, in internet parlance, “secure the bag”. (All of the pieces will be made to order and delivered between 15 December and 15 January 2021.) It’s safe to say that the sale was a resounding hit, as the Twitter conversation around Telfar once again reached fever pitch over the past 24 hours – even if this time, it was mostly people debating which colour and size to order. Along the way, it seems Clemens has picked up a new fan: none other than Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who took the time out from her busy few days around the Democratic National Convention to congratulate Clemens on her Instagram Stories, nothing that “our community is so proud”. 18 Times Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Was The Consummate Power Dresser It’s not hard to see why Ocasio-Cortez would be an admirer of Clemens’s democratic take on fashion. First, there’s the fact they were born in neighbouring boroughs, with Clemens growing up in the NY-14 congressional district she represents – a fact Ocasio-Cortez referenced by declaring him a “hometown hero” who has used his talents “to challenge us to question convention and imagine a different world”. So too does Telfar’s pride in being a queer Black designer resonate with Ocasio-Cortez’s mission to bring greater diversity and representation to the halls of power, whether in politics or fashion. Finally, there is Clemens’s central philosophy of accessibility and inclusivity, so memorably summarised in his famous motto: “Not for you, for everyone.” As one of Washington’s most vocal champions of social equity and a fairer society for all, we all know that’s a message AOC can get behind. The 24-hour pre-order window may now be over, but Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement is living proof that Telfar really is for everyone – even a member of Congress. Let’s just hope she managed to secure her bag too. This article was originally published on Vogue.com. NewsAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez How AOC Shut Down Criticism Of Her “Luxe Designer Dress” By Susan Devaney 25 February 2020 Power Pearls Are Kamala Harris’s Secret Style Weapon By Alice Newbold 12 August 2020	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513173
__label__wiki	0.839293	0.839293	Murder and Politics in Colonial Ghana Richard Rathbone In 1943, ritual murder was committed in a large African kingdom in the south of Ghana, then a colony of Great Britain. Palace officials and close kin of a recently deceased king had reputedly killed one of his chiefs in order to smooth the king's passage into the afterlife. This riveting study tells the story of the murder, the trials and appeals of those accused of the crime, and the effect of the case on politics in Ghana and Great Britain. In recounting this fascinating case, the book also provides important insights into law and politics in the colonial Gold Coast, the clash between traditional and modern values, and the nature of African monarchy in the colonial period. Drawing on newly available oral and written evidence from Ghana and Britain, Richard Rathbone builds a detailed picture of the leading characters in the case, as well as of the thirty-year rule of Nana Ofori Atta, the king. He shows how the death of the king destroyed the economic, social, and moral fabric of the kingdom, and how this destruction was further exacerbated by legal proceedings resulting from the murder. The case set the indigenous royal family against the colonial government, challenging the authority of each. Close kinsmen of the accused, hitherto in the vanguard of moderate nationalism, were radicalized by their extended confrontation with the colonial justice system. It was their political initiatives that accelerated the formation of the Gold Coast's first national political party in the late 1940s, and which led in turn to the struggle for self-government and to the achievement of Ghanian independence in 1957. Richard Rathbone is dean of postgraduate studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. "A superb book with an effective analysis of the issues-legal, social, political, and cultural. I recommend it as an example of historical paradox and as a good crime story."—Natalie Zemon Davis, Princeton University "[A] finely detailed book. The scene revolves around the death of a Ghanian chief, . . . the ritual murder of one of his follower, and the trials of those accused of the killing. The telling of that story contains all the elements of a good mystery. The larger picture is not lost, for the author links these events to the emergence of the nationalist movement in Ghana."—Library Journal "What a scholarly piece! I am really impressed by the skill with which you have waded through the maze of evidence and marshalled the facts, as well as the sheer readability of the book. Congratulations on a fine piece of work which will for a long time remain the standard work on that sordid and regrettable episode in Akyem Abuakwa history."—Robert Addo-Fenning "The story is fascinating, complex and richly illuminating both of African history and of British rule."—David Birmingham, History Today "A dense, richly textured history of an incident in which a group of misguided royals fearful of the future committed a crime. Rathbone skillfully weaves together a complex interpretation of that small incident."—Richard Roberts, Journal of African History "Rathbone takes his readers through this intricate story in a readable and indeed elegant style, and produces a truly gripping narrative. . . . Murder and Politics in Colonial Ghana is an impressive work."—Ivor Wilks, Journal of Interdisciplinary History "Rathbone's Murder and Politics in Colonial Ghana is a fascinating story written with considerable subtlety and sensitivity. . . . It makes an original contribution to our understanding of the nature and complexity of pre-independence politics in Ghana."—Joseph K. Adjaye, African Studies Review "This book provides fascinating reading. The student of Ghanaian law will find that it throws light on the personalities and histories of numerous personalities who were well-known or to become well-known in law and politics in Ghana and London. . . . There is a wealth of information and comment on the operation of the legal system. . . . It is clear that Rathbone's book contributes substantially to our understanding of history."—Gordon R. Woodman, Journal of African Law "It is a distinct pleasure . . . to welcome Richard Rathbone's sensitively written and thoroughly involving meditation upon the specificities of colonial society in the Gold Coast. . . . It is, simply, the most sympathetically evocative reconstruction available of the sheer complexity of the colonial 'moment' in Africa. It tells a complex story wonderfully well, and incites to profitable reflection. Essential reading for the Africanist, it will also richly repay the attention of a very broad constituency of readers."—T.C. McCaskie, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies "A gripping account of the Kibi murders affair which happened in Akyem after the Chief's death, and was a major issue in helping to radicalise moderate nationalist politics in Ghana after 1946."—West Africa Class and Economic Change in Kenya The Making of an African Petite-Bourgeoisie Gavin Kitching Robert O. Collins Islamization from Below The Making of Muslim Communities in Rural French Sudan, 1880-1960 Brian J. Peterson Idi Amin The Story of Africa's Icon of Evil Mark Leopold Old Treacheries and New Deceits The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective Crawford Young History > African Studies	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513176
__label__wiki	0.787963	0.787963	Bringing Julian Assange Home By John Pilger Below is the speech delivered by the well known journalist and documentarian John Pilger to the rally to free Julian Assange held by the Socialist Equality Party of Australia on Sunday, June 17 in Sydney's Town Hall Center. Thank you for coming for Julian and thank you to the SEP for organizing this very important rally. The persecution of Julian Assange must end. Or it will end in tragedy. The Australian government and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull have an historic opportunity to decide which it will be. They can remain silent, for which history will be unforgiving. Or they can act in the interests of justice and humanity and bring this remarkable Australian citizen home. John Pilger's speech to the SEP rally in defence of Julian Assange. [Video by Cathy Vogan and Liam Kesteven (www.facebook.com/liam.kesteven) for Politics in the Pub (www.politicsinthepub.org.au)] Assange does not ask for special treatment. The government has clear diplomatic and moral obligations to protect Australian citizens abroad from gross injustice: in Julian's case, from a gross miscarriage of justice and the extreme danger that awaits him should he walk out of the Ecuadorean embassy in London unprotected. We know from the Chelsea Manning case what he can expect if a US extradition warrant is successful—a United Nations Special Rapporteur called it torture. I know Julian Assange well; I regard him as a close friend, a person of extraordinary resilience and courage. I have watched a tsunami of lies and smear engulf him, endlessly, vindictively, perfidiously; and I know why they smear him. In 2008, a plan to destroy both WikiLeaks and Assange was laid out in a top secret document dated 8 March, 2008. The authors were the Cyber Counter-intelligence Assessments Branch of the US Defence Department. They described in detail how important it was to destroy the “feeling of trust” that is WikiLeaks’ “centre of gravity.” This would be achieved, they wrote, with threats of “exposure [and] criminal prosecution” and an unrelenting assault on reputation. The aim was to silence and criminalise WikiLeaks and its editor and publisher. It was as if they planned a war on a single human being and on the very principle of freedom of speech. Their main weapon would be personal smear. Their shock troops would be enlisted in the media—those who are meant to keep the record straight and tell us the truth. The irony is that no one told these journalists what to do. I call them Vichy journalists—after the Vichy government that served and enabled the German occupation of wartime France. Last October, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist Sarah Ferguson interviewed Hillary Clinton, over whom she fawned as “the icon for your generation.” This was the same Clinton who threatened to “obliterate totally” Iran and who, as US secretary of state in 2011, was one of the instigators of the invasion and destruction of Libya as a modern state, with the loss of 40,000 lives. Like the invasion of Iraq, it was based on lies. When the Libyan president was murdered publicly and gruesomely with a knife, Clinton was filmed whooping and cheering. Thanks largely to her, Libya became a breeding ground for ISIS and other jihadists. Thanks largely to her, tens of thousands of refugees fled in peril across the Mediterranean, and many drowned. Leaked emails published by WikiLeaks revealed that Hillary Clinton's foundation—which she shares with her husband—received millions of dollars from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the main backers of ISIS and terrorism across the Middle East. As secretary of state, Clinton approved the biggest arms sale ever—worth $80 billion— to Saudi Arabia, one of her foundation's principal benefactors. Today, Saudi Arabia is using these weapons to crush starving and stricken people in a genocidal assault on Yemen. Sarah Ferguson, a highly paid reporter, raised not a word of this with Hillary Clinton sitting in front of her. Instead, she invited Clinton to describe the “damage” Julian Assange did “personally to you.” In response, Clinton defamed Assange, an Australian citizen, as “very clearly a tool of Russian intelligence” and “a nihilistic opportunist who does the bidding of a dictator.” She offered no evidence—nor was asked for any—to back her grave allegations. At no time was Assange offered the right of reply to this shocking interview, which Australia's publicly-funded state broadcaster had a duty to give him. As if that wasn’t enough, Ferguson’s executive producer, Sally Neighour, followed the interview with a vicious re-tweet: “Assange is Putin's bitch. We all know it!” There are many other examples of Vichy journalism. The Guardian, reputedly once a great liberal newspaper, conducted a vendetta against Julian Assange. Like a spurned lover, the Guardian aimed its personal, petty, inhuman and craven attacks at a man whose work it once published and profited from. The former editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, called the WikiLeaks disclosures, which his newspaper published in 2010, “one of the greatest journalistic scoops of the last 30 years.” Awards were lavished and celebrated as if Julian Assange did not exist. WikiLeaks’ revelations became part of the Guardian’s marketing plan to raise the paper’s cover price. They made money, often big money, while WikiLeaks and Assange struggled to survive. With not a penny going to WikiLeaks, a hyped Guardian book led to a lucrative Hollywood movie deal. The book’s authors, Luke Harding and David Leigh, gratuitously abused Assange as a “damaged personality” and “callous.” They also revealed the secret password Julian had given the Guardian in confidence, and which was designed to protect a digital file containing the US embassy cables. With Assange now trapped in the Ecuadorean embassy, Harding, who had enriched himself on the backs of both Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, stood among the police outside the embassy and gloated on his blog that “Scotland Yard may get the last laugh.” The question is why? Julian Assange has committed no crime. He has never been charged with a crime. The Swedish episode was bogus and farcical and he has been vindicated. Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff of Women Against Rape summed it up when they wrote, “The allegations against [Assange] are a smokescreen behind which a number of governments are trying to clamp down on WikiLeaks for having audaciously revealed to the public their secret planning of wars and occupations with their attendant rape, murder and destruction... The authorities care so little about violence against women that they manipulate rape allegations at will.” This truth was lost or buried in a media witch-hunt that disgracefully associated Assange with rape and misogyny. The witch-hunt included voices who described themselves as on the left and as feminist. They willfully ignored the evidence of extreme danger should Assange be extradited to the United States. According to a document released by Edward Snowden, Assange is on a “Manhunt target list.” One leaked official memo says: “Assange is going to make a nice bride in prison. Screw the terrorist. He'll be eating cat food forever.” In Alexandra, Virginia—the suburban home of America’s war-making elite—a secret Grand Jury, a throwback to the Middle Ages—has spent seven years trying to concoct a crime for which Assange can be prosecuted. This is not easy; the US Constitution protects publishers, journalists and whistleblowers. Assange’s crime is to have broken a silence. No investigative journalism in my lifetime can equal the importance of what WikiLeaks has done in calling rapacious power to account. It is as if a one-way moral screen has been pushed back to expose the imperialism of liberal democracies: the commitment to endless warfare and the division and degradation of “unworthy” lives: from Grenfell Tower to Gaza. When Harold Pinter accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, he referred to “a vast tapestry of lies up on which we feed.” He asked why “the systematic brutality, the widespread atrocities, the ruthless suppression of independent thought” of the Soviet Union were well known in the West, while America’s imperial crimes “never happened ... even while [they] were happening, they never happened.” In its revelations of fraudulent wars (Afghanistan, Iraq) and the bald-faced lies of governments (the Chagos Islands), WikiLeaks has allowed us to glimpse how the imperial game is played in the 21st century. That is why Assange is in mortal danger. Seven years ago, in Sydney, I arranged to meet a prominent Liberal Member of the Federal Parliament, Malcolm Turnbull. I wanted to ask him to deliver a letter from Gareth Peirce, Assange’s lawyer, to the government. We talked about his famous victory—in the 1980s when, as a young barrister, he had fought the British Government’s attempts to suppress free speech and prevent the publication of the book Spycatcher—in its way, a WikiLeaks of the time, for it revealed the crimes of state power. The prime minister of Australia was then Julia Gillard, a Labor Party politician who had declared WikiLeaks “illegal” and wanted to cancel Assange’s passport—until she was told she could not do this: that Assange had committed no crime: that WikiLeaks was a publisher, whose work was protected under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Australia was one of the original signatories. In abandoning Assange, an Australian citizen, and colluding in his persecution, prime ,inister Gillard’s outrageous behaviour forced the issue of his recognition, under international law, as a political refugee whose life was at risk. Ecuador invoked the 1951 Convention and granted Assange refuge in its embassy in London. Gillard has recently been appearing in a gig with Hillary Clinton; they are billed as pioneering feminists. If there is anything to remember Gillard by, it is a warmongering, sycophantic, embarrassing speech she made to the US Congress soon after she demanded the illegal cancellation of Julian’s passport. Malcolm Turnbull is now the prime minister of Australia. Julian Assange’s father has written to Turnbull. It is a moving letter, in which he has appealed to the prime minister to bring his son home. He refers to the real possibility of a tragedy. I have watched Assange’s health deteriorate in his years of confinement without sunlight. He has had a relentless cough, but is not even allowed safe passage to and from a hospital for an X-ray. Malcolm Turnbull can remain silent. Or he can seize this opportunity and use his government’s diplomatic influence to defend the life of an Australian citizen, whose courageous public service is recognised by countless people across the world. He can bring Julian Assange home. This is an abridged version of an address by John Pilger to a rally in Sydney, Australia, to mark Julian Assange’s six years’ confinement in the Ecuadorean embassy in London. Free Julian Assange! Australian workers and youth demand freedom for Julian Assange Assange denied bail after extradition blocked, will appeal to UK High Court After British extradition verdict, Australian government still refuses to defend Assange Medical doctors respond to Assange extradition ruling: “He must be released without delay” Watch: Meeting commemorates decades-long Australian Trotskyist Barry Jobson SEP meeting honours the life and political legacy of Australian Trotskyist Barry Jobson Australia: Locked-out Coles workers reject company “offer” as union declares its “neutrality” Trump coup attempt highlights official promotion of far-right in Australia Google engineers form Communications Workers of America-affiliated union Police arrested more than 117 journalists in the US in 2020 Pandemic exacerbates internet access crisis in Midwestern US UN rapporteur Nils Melzer demands Assange’s immediate release after ten years’ arbitrary detention The sickness in the White House Welcoming the Relaunch of the World Socialist Web Site Trump copies Hitler World Socialist Web Site interviews historian Dr. Joseph Scalice Video: Police on nationwide rampage As COVID-19 resurges, Chinese workers hit by pay and job cuts China’s growth rate increase fuels geo-political tensions 22 workers trapped by blast in Chinese gold mine	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513177
__label__wiki	0.616212	0.616212	The Civil War Election The US presidential election is now eight weeks away. The campaign between Trump and Biden is pitting an administration that is making an increasingly open appeal to violence and police state repression against a Democratic Party campaign that, as always, offers no genuine alternative to the drive toward authoritarianism and war. The Trump administration is utilizing the election campaign in an attempt to build up a right-wing, fascistic movement on a ferociously antisocialist basis. Trump has followed up his praise of Kyle Rittenhouse, who murdered two protesters and injured a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin last month, with calls for vengeance directed against opponents of police violence. At his press conference on Monday, the president hailed the killing of protester Michael Reinoehl by US Marshals last week. “If somebody is breaking the law, there has got to be a form of retribution,” Trump declared, condoning extrajudicial reprisals from his supporters. The same day, he retweeted a statement from right-wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza declaring that political unrest would lead to the “rise of citizen militias around the country”—that is, fascistic vigilante organizations like Patriot Prayer, responsible for terrorizing protesters in Portland, Oregon. As the World Socialist Web Site has noted, Trump is not running for president; he is running for Führer. His campaign seems to be modeled on Hitler’s bid for German chancellor in 1932. Using language that is unprecedented in American history, Trump is seeking to create conditions, regardless of the outcome on November 3, in which he will emerge as the leader of an extra-constitutional, right-wing movement. There is no doubt that if Trump wins, he will immediately escalate the suppression of democratic rights and implementation of police state forms of rule. Under these conditions, the argument of the Democratic Party is that all opposition to Trump must be directed behind the election of Biden. For workers to allow their struggles to be subordinated to the electoral considerations of the Democratic Party, however, would be a fatal political error. Trump did not emerge from nowhere. He expresses in the most unvarnished form the essentially fascistic, antidemocratic impulse of the American ruling class as a whole. That Trump is not some sort of demon unleashed from hell is revealed in the fact that the growth of authoritarianism and fascism is a universal phenomenon, from Brazil and India to France and Germany. The working class must direct its opposition to the underlying disease of which Trump is an expression. What are the conditions that are fueling this crisis? First, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the catastrophic state to which capitalism has driven society. It is an extreme expression and product of the subordination of everything to the profit interests of the corporate and financial oligarchy. The ruling class has effectively adopted a policy of “herd immunity,” allowing the virus to spread without restraint. The back-to-work campaign, spearheaded by Trump but implemented by both the Democrats and Republicans, has already led to an enormous surge in the death toll, which is now approaching 200,000 people. The University of Washington now estimates that the number of deaths by the end of the year could rise to above 400,000. Second, alongside the health impact of the pandemic is a deepening social and economic crisis for millions of people. Despite the back-to-work campaign, there are more than 11 million fewer jobs now than before the pandemic hit. It is six weeks since Congress allowed federal unemployment benefits to expire, throwing millions into poverty. The number of Americans facing hunger this year is projected to increase by 45 percent, to more than 50 million. The multitrillion-dollar bailout of Wall Street, sanctioned with the nearly unanimous support of Congress in late March, produced massive growth in the wealth of the oligarchy. On Tuesday, Forbes published its latest update on the wealth of American billionaires, reporting that the wealth of the richest 400 people has reached a record $3.2 trillion, up $240 billion from a year ago. Third, the deepening economic, social and political crisis increases the danger that the ruling class will see war abroad as a means of resolving its problems at home. Trump is making aggressive moves in the South China Sea as part of its offensive against China, while the Democrats, if they come to power, are committed to an intensification of the conflict with Russia and war in the Middle East. It is to these conditions that the Trump administration is responding. In its October 19, 2019 statement, “No to American fascism! Build a mass movement to force Trump out!,” the Socialist Equality Party stated: To downplay, let alone deny, the fact that the Trump presidency is metastasizing rapidly into a right-wing authoritarian regime, with distinctly fascist characteristics, is to close one’s eyes to political reality. The old refrain, “It can’t happen here”—i.e., that American democracy is eternally immune from the cancer of fascism—is hopelessly out of date. The very fact that a thug like Trump ascended to the White House testifies to the terminal crisis of the existing political system. These processes have only intensified over the past year, vastly accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic. Trump’s fascistic rhetoric is an attempt to beat back a growing social movement of the working class against the policies of the corporate and financial oligarchy. The Democratic Party, however, represents another faction of the same oligarchy. Its appeal is to dominant factions of the military and the intelligence agencies as the arbiters of political power to whom it will turn if Trump refuses to leave office. Its main aim is to suppress any form of social opposition that threatens the interests of the ruling elite. Over the past week, Biden has denounced protests over police violence, attacked socialism, and made clear that he will run his campaign on the most right-wing basis possible. In the final stages of the election, the Democrats are attempting to revive their anti-Russia campaign to ever more explicitly target left-wing opposition within the United States as the work of “foreign adversaries.” Biden presents himself as the “man in the middle” under conditions of a developing civil war situation. His campaign offers nothing to address the social catastrophe confronting masses of people. The Democrats’ open embrace of militarist violence—welcoming as part of their “coalition” the leading architects of the Iraq war—even allows the fascistic Trump to posture as an opponent of the “military-industrial complex.” The Democrats are above all opposed to raising any issues that undermine the economic and financial interests of the ruling elite. An indication of the social policies that a Biden campaign would pursue if in office was given in an article published in the Washington Post on Monday. Referring to the economic proposals released by the Biden campaign—consisting of milquetoast reforms that were the product of discussions with the “Sanders-Warren” wing of the party—the Post wrote: But in private calls with Wall Street leaders, the Biden campaign made it clear those proposals would not be central to Biden’s agenda. “They basically said, ‘Listen, this is just an exercise to keep the Warren people happy, and don’t read too much into it,’” said one investment banker, referring to liberal supporters of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-mass.). The banker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private talks, said that message was conveyed on multiple calls. The Democratic Party, for all its denunciations of Trump, makes no mention of the essentially fascistic character of the policies he is pursuing. It should be recalled that even though Trump lost the last election by three million votes, the immediate response of the Democratic Party was to offer its collaboration. The election, Obama said, was an “intramural scrimmage” between two sides of the same team. If the Democrats were to lose on November 3, or even if they were to win, the response would be no different. They would immediately offer an olive branch to Trump and the Republican Party. The ability of Trump to attract and maintain a following is largely a product of the inability of the Democrats to offer anything to address the social crisis. In the end, the actual differences are marginal, focused above all on foreign policy. The fact that the contest is even close, under conditions of mass death and social devastation, is an indictment of the Democratic Party. It is incapable of making a popular appeal precisely because of the class interests that it represents. The strategy of the working class cannot be guided by the arithmetic of an election, but the logic of the class struggle. The Socialist Equality Party and our election campaign—Joseph Kishore for president and Norissa Santa Cruz for vice president—direct all of our attention to the growth of working class opposition. The election must be seen not as an end, but as part of a broader process. This will prepare the working class for whatever outcome—whether it is Trump or Biden in the White House or whether it is the direct intervention of the military. There is already growing opposition in the working class. Teachers and parents are mobilizing against the efforts to reopen the schools amidst the raging pandemic. Educators and students have begun to fight against the dangerous reopening of colleges and universities, including a strike that began yesterday at the University of Michigan by 1,000 lecturers and graduate students. There is seething anger among autoworkers, Amazon workers, transportation workers, service workers and other sections of the working class to the back-to-work campaign and the effort by the corporations to use the pandemic to increase exploitation. A “winter of discontent” is brewing with millions out of work and facing poverty and eviction. This is combined with the continued protests over police violence and racism, sparked in late May by the murder of George Floyd. While fueled by the unending epidemic of police violence, the protests have given expression to deep social anger and a desire among millions of workers and youth to fight back. The struggles of different sections of the working class must be organized and united through the formation of independent factory, workplace and neighborhood safety committees. The fight of teachers against the back-to-school campaign must be connected with the fight of students against the reopening of the universities, the fight of workers against the horrific conditions in the plants, the fight of the unemployed against social devastation, and the fight of the youth against police violence. At issue in every struggle is the question of political power: What class rules and in whose interests. The only solution to the crisis is one that is directed against the capitalist system. A massive diversion of social resources away from the bailout of the rich and the financing of militarism and war is required. The wealth of the oligarchs must be seized, and the gigantic corporations and banks turned into public utilities to create the conditions for a globally coordinated program to save lives. The fight against the pandemic is not primarily a medical question. As with every great problem confronting the working class—social inequality and poverty, war, environmental degradation and dictatorship—it is a political and revolutionary question, which raises the need for the working class to take power in its own hands, overthrow capitalism, and restructure all of society on the basis of social need. This program must become the basis for unifying all the struggles of the working class in the United States and, moreover, provide a lead to the fight of workers throughout the world. The next two months are critical. The SEP and our sister parties in the International Committee of the Fourth International are spearheading the fight to build a socialist leadership in the working class. This is the most urgent political task. The essential conclusion that must be drawn is to join and build the Socialist Equality Party. Statement of the Socialist Equality Party (US) Political Committee The Republican National Convention: A frightened ruling class incites fascist violence [27 August 2020] Colin Powell at the Democratic National Convention: Democrats prepare administration of militarism and war No to American fascism! Build a mass movement to force Trump out! Palace coup or class struggle: The political crisis in Washington and the strategy of the working class Yellen takes aggressive stance on China in treasury secretary confirmation hearing Biden’s inaugural address: Banality and empty abstractions to cover over reality Senate hearings for Biden’s security cabinet expose bipartisan unity on war and reaction Trump pardons Bannon, grants clemency to reactionaries and criminals Trump and the danger of fascism in America Democrats promote “white privilege” fiction to block united working class response to fascist coup plot	cc/2021-04/en_head_0035.json.gz/line1513178

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