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Dave the Diver
Feb. 1, 2024
Dave the Diver Godzilla Announcement Trailer | State of Play 2024
Dave the Diver is coming to PS5 and he's bringing his friend Godzilla along in an official collaboration. The hit scuba sim Dave the Diver is coming to PS5 in May 2024.
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https://in.ign.com/dave-the-diver/201403/video/dave-the-diver-godzilla-announcement-trailer-state-of-play-2024
| 2024-01-31T23:51:22Z
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OSWEGO, Ill. (WLS) -- A music educator in the western suburbs has been named as a top 10 finalist for a Grammy award.
A lot of students may have had a music, band or choral teacher who was so inspiring that the students felt like Bruce Springsteen or Beyoncé in their classes. Kevin Schoenbach is doing just that for the kids at Oswego High School.
He's a top 10 finalist for the Grammy Music Educator of the year award.
I'm not necessarily trying to create better musicians, I'm trying to create better people.Kevin Schoenbach
The wildly popular teacher spoke to ABC7 about how he gets his students to hit all the right notes.
"I started playing the trombone specifically so I could play in a jazz band, and I never put it down," Schoenbach said. "I loved it. I was always trying to emulate people like John Coltrane and J.J. Johnson. Jazz was the thing that got me going and probably why I'm here today."
Schoenbach grew up in the western suburbs. Some of his elders were even musical.
"My biggest dream before education, I wanted to make it into the Wynton Marsalis' Jazz band," Schoenbach said. "Or playing backing trombone for Beyonce or Justin Timberlake... I love that style of music, too."
Kevin and his psychologist wife have two girls, and both are "Swifties." His students are also his loyal "kids."
"When you go to school every day, and when you have someone like Mr. Schoenbach encouraging you and showing you, it's possible that can save you and remind you why you started this in the first place," senior clarinet and tenor saxophone player Jakhai Hudson said.
The students at OHS said they love Mr. Schoenbach. His devotion to music is infectious.
"He's always there for you," senior trumpet player Andrew Gabaldon said. "Whatever I need, he'll do whatever it takes to make it happen."
SEE ALSO | Oswego High School band instructor Stephanie San Roman wins CMA Music Teachers of Excellence award
"He's definitely inspired me to continue," junior alto saxophone, flute and piccolo player Makayla Kelty said. "Whether or not I go into music, I will definitely be playing."
Schoenbach said he can tell when a kid "has it."
"I think so, sometimes, and those kids are special," he said. "But the more rewarding ones for me are when a kid does not have it and they want it, and you see what they're willing to do to make that a reality."
Schoenbach also talked about what teaching means to him.
"It's not about playing the right notes all the time, it's about going about it the right way," he said. "I think the lessons you learn about music education are lessons about how to be a better human being. I'm not necessarily trying to create better musicians, I'm trying to create better people."
The Music Educator of the year is announced by the Recording Academy Thursday morning.
Schoenbach will find out then if he's heading to Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards Sunday night.
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https://abc7chicago.com/oswego-high-school-kevin-schoenbach-grammy-music-educator-of-the-year-award/14375796/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:22Z
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Bayer has been ordered to pay a Pennsylvania man $2.25 billion in a verdict that "sends a clear message that this multi-national corporation needs top to bottom change," the man's lawyers say. A jury awarded the man the sum—which includes $2 billion in damages—after it concluded that the company's Roundup weed killer is "a defective cancer-causing product," lawyers Tom Kline and Jason Itkin said in a statement, per CNN. The plaintiff, 49-year-old John McKivison, said he developed non-Hodgkins lymphoma after using Roundup on his property for two decades, NBC News reports.
The jury also determined that Monsanto, which was acquired by Bayer in 2018, was negligent and "failed to warn about the dangers of the product," the attorneys said. Bayer said it plans to appeal to get the "unconstitutionally excessive damage award eliminated or reduced." The company is still selling Roundup, arguing that a World Health Organization report linking key ingredient glyphosate to cancer is outnumbered by studies showing it is safe, CNN reports. "While we have great sympathy for the plaintiff in this case, we are confident that our products can be used safely and are not carcinogenic, consistent with the assessments of expert regulators worldwide," the company said.
Bayer has now used up around $10 billion of the $16 billion it set aside to resolve Roundup lawsuits. Few of the cases have made it to trial, and Bayer has won most of them, but pressure from shareholders to change its legal strategy is growing after several large verdicts against the company. "At some point there needs to be an endgame," Stanford Law School professor Nora Freeman Engstrom tells Bloomberg. "This drip, drip, drip of billion-dollar verdicts has to be extremely upsetting to Bayer and destabilizing to its bottom line." (Last month, a jury ordered the company to pay $857 million to people who said another Monsanto product caused their illnesses.)
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https://www.newser.com/story/345748/bayer-hit-with-225b-verdict-in-roundup-lawsuit.html
| 2024-01-31T23:51:22Z
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Socceroos skipper Ryan sets winning tone at Asian Cup
When the sprinklers burst to life across the Socceroos' training pitch in Doha, most players beat a hasty retreat from the spraying water.
But one figure remains.
Socceroos goalkeeper Mat Ryan is on the ground, protective face mask over his eyes, nonchalantly and diligently completing a series of strenuous warm-up exercises.
On the surface, his teammates aren't paying much notice to their captain's strict routine. They're used to him ticking every box.
The Socceroos skipper has his eyes set firmly on adding another Asian Cup title to the breakthrough trophy he won as a 22-year-old in 2015.
"Being a professional footballer means dedicating, sacrificing, everything of our lives to get where we are and opportunities like that, they're the ones you remember forever," Ryan told AAP.
"I will remember that day nine years ago for the rest of my life for all that it brought me.
"When a group of guys come together and you set out a plan - you have a goal and you're ambitious and you want to achieve it - the moment you reach that, the ecstasy that comes from it; there's no better feeling.
"You create something that you're going to remember for the rest of your life and you're going to tell stories of to your future kids and grandkids.
"Ultimately, what's more meaningful than that in life?"
Ryan is a winner. A Socceroo since December 2012, he is comfortable pushing his limits to ensure he achieves his goals.
It's why, after surgery to repair a fractured cheekbone suffered in a training accident in December, he pushed to return in time for the Asian Cup, donning a protective mask to make sure he could.
His commitment to the cause is infectious.
"His desire and his capacity to try to make us better constantly, to push players further and push himself further all the time, it does astound me," teammate Jackson Irvine told AAP.
"He'll probably be one of our most, if not the most, capped Socceroo and he's still at this point wanting to get better, to make every one of the players around him better, to make the team better.
"I can't speak highly enough of him as a player, as a professional and as a mate."
But it's the balance Ryan strikes between his serious, process-driven side and knowing when to have fun that has his teammates well and truly won over.
"He's a warm guy," Irvine said.
"He was my first-ever roommate in my first-ever camp in Paris in 2013.
"He immediately makes you feel a part of it, but he also makes you always appreciate the intensity of being here.
"He loves a laugh. You see him when the boys are shooting, he loves getting mouthy with the strikers and pushing them.
"He's got that perfect blend of being able to have a laugh, but also recognising when the boys need to switch into game mode."
Centre-back Harry Souttar sums it up succinctly.
"I always praise Maty Ryan as the best captain I've played for," Souttar told AAP.
"In terms of everything he does, it's so easy just to follow him. Whatever he says, you just back it to the hilt."
Ryan knows he will need to be at his most prepared when he leads out Australia for Friday night's quarter-final against South Korea - the same opponent he and the Socceroos bested in 2015's final.
It's a challenge he welcomes.
"Another big characteristic of leadership for me is finding a way to be able to produce on the pitch, when perhaps occasions or moments are stacked against you," he said.
"No one expects you to be able to produce but you find a way to do it."
If that involves a penalty shoot-out, Australia's No.1 is ready to stand tall.
"I've got a pretty good record and a pretty good penalty process that I go through. It's proven to be pretty successful," he said.
"Hopefully it doesn't get to that stage and we can get the job done in normal time, but if it's there, I'll be prepared and I'll be ready."
A potential three games away from claiming his first silverware as captain, Ryan is ready to embrace the moment.
"Winning is winning. Winning is great, no matter how old or young you are, so I just want to win as much as I can," he said.
"The ecstasy, there's no better feeling to life.
"That's all I'm really focused on - trying to do my best to give ourselves the best chance to go and do that."
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-13030729/Socceroos-skipper-Ryan-sets-winning-tone-Asian-Cup.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
| 2024-01-31T23:51:22Z
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A look from Maui six months after devastating wildfires By Debbie Elliott Published January 31, 2024 at 2:39 PM PST Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 5:06 As we approach the six-month anniversary of the Maui fires, we look at the biggest issues that people on the island are still facing. Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kvpr.org/2024-01-31/a-look-from-maui-six-months-after-devastating-wildfires
| 2024-01-31T23:51:22Z
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A group of astrophysicists from the United States, Italy, and Japan, led by UCLA astrophysicists, has discovered new clues to the origins of the universe and dark matter. In a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the team ran simulations that track the formation of small galaxies after the Big Bang and included, for the first time, previously neglected interactions between gas and dark matter.
The researchers found that the galaxies created are very tiny, much brighter, and form more quickly than they do in typical simulations that don’t take these interactions into account. This discovery could have significant implications for our understanding of dark matter and the formation of small galaxies.
Dark matter is a type of hypothetical matter that does not interact with electromagnetism or light. Thus, it is impossible to observe using optics, electricity, or magnetism. But dark matter does interact with gravity, and its presence has been inferred from the gravitational effects it has on ordinary matter, which makes up all the observable universe. Even though 84% of the matter in the universe is thought to be made of dark matter, it has never been detected directly.
The team’s simulations also revealed that small galaxies may have been much brighter than expected early in the universe’s history, when they were just beginning to form. The authors suggest that scientists should try to find small galaxies that are much brighter than expected using telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope. If they only find faint ones, then some of their ideas about dark matter might be wrong.
The new research could also provide an effective test for theories about dark matter. Because dark matter is impossible to study directly, searching for bright patches of galaxies in the early universe could offer new insights into this mysterious and elusive substance.
“The fact that they should be so bright might make it easier for the telescope to discover these small galaxies, which are typically extremely hard to detect only 375 million years after the Big Bang,” said Claire Williams, a UCLA doctoral student and the paper’s first author.
The discovery of these small, bright galaxies could help scientists better understand the origins of the universe and the role that dark matter played in its formation. The team’s research provides new clues to the nature of dark matter and could help scientists develop new theories about this enigmatic substance.
Journal Reference
- Claire E. Williams, William Lake, Smadar Naoz, Blakesley Burkhart, Tommaso Treu, Federico Marinacci, Yurina Nakazato, Mark Vogelsberger, Naoki Yoshida, Gen Chiaki, Yeou S. Chiou, and Avi Chen. The Supersonic Project: Lighting Up the Faint End of the JWST UV Luminosity Function. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 960, Number 2. DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad1491
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https://www.techexplorist.com/astrophysicists-discover-new-clues-to-origins-of-universe-dark-matter/80384/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:23Z
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Top tech CEOs were being grilled in Washington by lawmakers, who said the companies have failed to protect children from being subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation on their websites.
The executives include Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, X's Linda Yaccarino and TikTok's Shou Zi Chew, among others.
The social media apps have "given predators powerful new tools to exploit children," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., at the kickoff of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. He noted that the powerful apps "have changed the way we live, work and play."
The hearing is one of several over the past year as pressure builds for federal regulators to do more to hold tech companies accountable for children's safety online. Lawmakers have spoken out, have written letters to the CEOs and are pushing five separate bills that cover social media and child safety.
States have also targeted the social media companies. Last year, 13 states passed laws to protect kids on social media, and more states are expected to do the same.
"You have blood on your hands," Sen. Lindsey Graham tells Zuckerberg
Of the companies testifying on Wednesday, Meta has especially come under fire for allegedly creating a toxic environment for children. In October, a group of more than 40 states sued the company for allegedly designing Facebook and Instagram to be addictive.
Separately, New Mexico's attorney general filed another suit against Meta, alleging it fails to remove child sexual abuse material from its platforms and also makes it easy for adults to solicit minors.
That lawsuit came after a Facebook whistleblower, Arturo Bejar, testified before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee in November. Based on data he collected while working at Facebook, he said he found that 24% of teens had received unwanted sexual advances. And when harmful posts are reported, he said, only 2% are taken down.
During Wednesday's hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., laid into Zuckerberg.
"Mr. Zuckerberg," Graham began, "you have blood on your hands. You have a product that's killing people."
The packed audience, which included parents, survivors and child advocates, erupted in applause.
Zuckerberg has testified several times before members of the Senate, and he voluntarily agreed to speak again on Wednesday. In his opening statement, he said, "Keeping young people safe online has been a challenge since the internet began."
"No matter how much we invest or how effective our tools are, there's always more to learn and more improvements to make," Zuckerberg added.
Internal emails show Zuckerberg declined to hire staff to protect children online
In the lead-up to Wednesday's hearing, Meta rolled out new tools geared toward protecting kids online. Those include barring children under age 18 from seeing posts about suicide, self-harm and eating disorders. The company says it has around 40,000 people working on safety and security issues.
But just hours before the hearing began, lawmakers released 90 pages of internal emails that showed Meta has refused to fully commit to improving child safety on its platforms. At one point in 2021, the emails show, Zuckerberg declined a proposal to hire 45 new staff members dedicated to children's well-being.
The emails show top executives at Meta discussing budget and head count, as well as the fact that if they didn't address the issue they'd face increased regulatory risk and external criticism.
"This work & narrative has of course become a more critical focal point for policymakers, regulators et al in recent weeks — this is not likely to diminish going forward," Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs wrote in a 2021 email to Zuckerberg.
The internal emails were produced in response to a letter that Senators Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., sent to Meta in November.
Five federal bills introduced
Of the other executives to testify, TikTok's Chew has also appeared before Congresslast year, but this is the first time lawmakers have grilled X's Yaccarino and the two other CEOs: Snap's Evan Spiegel and Discord's Jason Citron. Chew volunteered to speak on Wednesday, but Yaccarino, Spiegel and Citron agreed only after being subpoenaed.
Snap has come out as the sole social media company to throw its support behind the Kids Online Safety Act, which is one of the bills that lawmakers are hoping to bring to the Senate floor this year. If passed, it would hold tech companies accountable for feeding teens toxic content.
"Many of the largest and most successful internet companies today were born here in the United States of America, and we must lead not only in technical innovation but also in smart regulation," Snap's Spiegel said in his opening remarks on Wednesday.
Throughout the hearing, several of the senators tried to get the tech CEOs to agree to back legislation. All of the executives said more had to be done and they agree with regulation, but besides Spiegel, none said they'd fully back one of the bills.
At one point Senator Chris Coons, D-Del., tried to get the CEOs to support legislation he and several other senators introduced, the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act.
"Is there any one of you willing to say now that you support this bill?" Coons asked the CEOs.
After the question didn't elicit a response, he followed up with: "Mr. Chairman, let the record reflect a yawning silence from the leaders of the social media platforms."
Child safety groups and parents joined lawmakers for several press conferences on Wednesday. They echoed the senators' demands that more has to be done to protect kids online.
"Parents used to worry about where their kids were at 10 p.m.," said Imran Ahmed, CEO and founder of the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate. "These days, they may be physically present, but we don't know who they're spending time with online and what they're being exposed to every day."
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.wrkf.org/2024-01-31/you-have-blood-on-your-hands-senator-tells-mark-zuckerberg-for-failing-kids-online
| 2024-01-31T23:51:23Z
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ORLANDO, Fla. — (ORLANDO, Fla.) -- A federal judge in Florida has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Disney against Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials over the state legislature's decision to alter the governing structure of the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
Disney had argued in the lawsuit, filed last April, that the change to the district, for which the company was the main landowner, was made in retaliation for criticism of the Parental Rights in Education Act, known by opponents as the "Don't Say Gay" bill.
The Florida Legislature voted to dissolve the former governing board of the district and create a DeSantis-appointed Central Florida Tourism Oversight District in its place. The board voided a contract made before the CFTOD was in place, according to the lawsuit.
DeSantis has been at odds with Disney since it publicly criticized a DeSantis-backed controversial Florida law that restricts content concerning sexual orientation and gender identity in grades kindergarten through third grade.
Disney, citing concerns of discrimination, had said it "should never have passed and should never have been signed into law."
Taryn Fenske, the communications director for DeSantis, told ABC News when the lawsuit was filed, "We are unaware of any legal right that a company has to operate its own government or maintain special privileges not held by other businesses in the state."
DeSantis and J. Alex Kelly, the secretary of Florida's Department of Commerce, had argued a lack of standing and 11th Amendment immunity in the case, both of which Winsor agreed on, while the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District argued a lack of merit in the case.
"The clerk will enter a judgment that says, 'This case was resolved on motions to dismiss. Plaintiff's claims against the Governor and the Department Secretary are dismissed without prejudice for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Plaintiff's claims against the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board members are dismissed on the merits for failure to state a claim," U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor, who was appointed by then-President Donald Trump in 2018, wrote in concluding his decision.
Winsor wrote that Disney had not shown standing to sue the governor or secretary.
"The analysis could be different if the Governor had not yet made any appointments," Winsor wrote. "But as things stand, if this court enjoined future appointments, Disney would face the same situation it faces now: it would be operating under the CFTOD board, over which it has no control. Stopping hypothetical future appointments would not redress any alleged imminent harm."
The lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice, meaning it can be brought again with proper standing.
"This is an important case with serious implications for the rule of law, and it will not end here," a Disney spokesperson said. "If left unchallenged, this would set a dangerous precedent and give license to states to weaponize their official powers to punish the expression of political viewpoints they disagree with. We are determined to press forward with our case."
Disney is the parent company of ABC News.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wdbo.com/news/business/federal-judge/GIV2P7XOKKSMCP4SRXN44MKHXI/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:22Z
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30% Of Nigerians Looking For Asylum In Belgium Are From Edo – Official
Featured, Latest News, News Across Nigeria Wednesday, January 31st, 2024(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Directorate General, Immigration Office, Belgium has stated that about 30 percent of Nigerian migrants looking for Asylum in the country are from Edo State.
The Director General, Directorate General, Immigration Office, Freddy Roosemont, stated this on Wednesday in Benin City in a press conference.
According to Roosemont, the development is worrisome and it is a disgrace to the corporate image of Nigeria.
He disclosed that a lot of Nigerians are seeking Asylum in Belgium. In 2022, about 370 Nigerians sought for Asylum while in 2023, about 360 also requested Asylum.
He said: “30 per cent are from Edo, 20 per cent from Lagos, while the remaining 50 per cent are from other states in Nigeria.
“Some have come to Belgium by legal means while others came through the Mediterranean Sea.
“Once in Belgium, they apply for Asylum, but this makes little sense. Asylum is determined on the basis of the Geneva Convention and economic motives are not included.”
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https://www.africanexaminer.com/30-of-nigerians-looking-for-asylum-in-belgium-are-from-edo-official/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:22Z
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EL-ARISH, Egypt — For 56 critically ill and wounded Gazans, the road to crucial medical care started Tuesday on a military airfield in Egypt’s northern Sinai. This is where a plane was parked, awaiting patients driven in on ambulances from area hospitals or from inside Gaza.
Such "mercy" flights are made possible by countries such as the United Arab Emirates, where commercial planes are retrofitted with stretchers and beds to ferry patients on a four-hour trip from Egypt to Abu Dhabi to receive medical care. Tuesday’s flight was the UAE’s eleventh humanitarian airlift since the Israel-Hamas war began with the Oct. 7 attacks.
The patients on Tuesday’s flight were mainly children with complex fractures and head injuries. A few have chronic illnesses that have been left untreated since the supply of medicine into Gaza slowed to a trickle after the start of the war. The patients are tended to by a team of doctors and nurses who are on the flight with them.
“I remember the first girl that we evacuated in the first plane,” said Dr. Maha Barakat, the UAE's assistant minister of foreign affairs for health. “She had complex fractures and many broken bones. And her mother told us that for the first time in two months, she smiled when we were able to give her painkillers that relieved her of her pain.”
Read more on this story at NBCNews.com and watch “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT.
Desperate need for medicine and care
Gaza’s crumbling infrastructure and hospital system means that there are few places that the sick and injured, now at nearly 66,000, can access care. More than 26,900 people have been killed in Gaza since the war started, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. There have been 645 attacks on the health system in Palestinian territories, as of mid-January, according to the World Health Organization.
Among the injured is 12-year-old Nour, whose legs were shattered in a bombing. She needs an operation in a well-equipped hospital to avoid further complications, including, in a worst-case scenario, the possible amputation of her leg.
Nour winced in pain as she expressed her desire to “stay out” of Gaza when asked where she’d like to be when she recovers.
Mai Blata, who suffers from a complicated genetic disorder, has not had access to essential medication since it ran out in Gaza. Her mother told NBC News that the lack of ophidine to treat her condition has left her with acute renal failure and nerve damage. Unable to walk, Mai was lifted onto the plane on a stretcher.
The UAE said it is learning how to improve the evacuation logistics with each flight. Reaching patients on an approved list of evacuees was tricky with communication blackouts in Gaza, so it is now asking the remaining functioning hospitals to supply their own names. In the southern part of Gaza, which used to have 12 hospitals, only seven are now partially functioning, according to the WHO.
And with pharmaceutical supplies exhausted and few shipments going in, potentially life-saving treatments for cancer and other serious conditions are unavailable. The Israeli government insists that it has “not blocked the import of chemotherapy medicine” into Gaza.
For patients on Tuesday’s flight, this is not the end of the road. After treatment, there are still questions about what happens next and what home, if there is one left, they will be able to return to in Gaza.
Seven-year-old Zahra Jaber cried for her mother as she was lifted onto the plane on a stretcher. “Mama is what she calls me now,” her aunt, who was accompanying her on the plane, told NBC News. “Because her mother isn’t here.”
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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/mercy-flights-wounded-palestinians-egypt-rcna136640
| 2024-01-31T23:51:25Z
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Mississippi eyes quicker Medicaid coverage in pregnancy to try to reduce deaths of moms and babies
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi could allow Medicaid coverage earlier in pregnancy in an effort to improve health outcomes for mothers and babies in a poor state with the nation’s worst rate of infant mortality.
With wide bipartisan support, the state House passed a bill Wednesday to allow up to 60 days of “presumptive eligibility” for Medicaid, starting July 1. This means a pregnant woman’s outpatient medical care would be paid by Medicaid as her application for coverage by the government insurance program is being considered.
Processing Medicaid applications can take weeks, and physicians say early prenatal care is important.
House Medicaid Committee Chairwoman Missy McGee of Hattiesburg pointed out that Mississippi has high rates of fetal mortality, infant mortality and maternal mortality.
“I think this will go a long way in helping moms and babies be healthy … and give babies the best shot for a healthy life,” McGee said.
Mississippi ranks worst in the U.S. for infant mortality, with Black infants nearly twice as likely as white ones to die over the past decade, according to a report unveiled Jan. 18 by the state Department of Health.
Presumptive Medicaid eligibility during pregnancy would be based on questions about income, asked by health care providers such as employees of county health departments. If a woman’s Medicaid application is ultimately rejected because her income is too high, Medicaid would still pay health care providers for services they provided during the time of presumptive eligibility.
McGee said presumptive eligibility could cost the Medicaid program just under $600,000 a year.
Medicaid is funded by federal and state governments, with the federal government paying at least 50% of costs in all states and a higher share in poorer states. The federal government pays for nearly 77% of Medicaid expenses in Mississippi.
In Mississippi, Medicaid coverage for pregnant women 19 and older is based on income. A woman who is in that age category and has no dependents can earn up to about $29,000 and qualify for Medicaid during pregnancy. A pregnant woman in that age category who has three dependents can earn up to $59,700 and qualify.
Mississippi Medicaid coverage is available to all income levels for those who are pregnant and younger than 19.
Democratic Rep. John Hines Sr. of Greenville said earlier eligibility for Medicaid coverage during pregnancy could help the state in recruiting OB-GYNs.
“Where we are right now is that we are last in everything,” Hines said. “This is a step toward making Mississippi a better place.”
The bill passed the House 117-5. It moves to the Senate for more work in coming weeks. Republicans control both chambers.
About 41% of births in the U.S. and 57% in Mississippi were financed by Medicaid in 2022, according to the health policy research group KFF. Only Louisiana had a larger share of births covered by Medicaid that year, at 61%.
In 2023, Mississippi extended postpartum Medicaid coverage from two months to a full year, with Republican Gov. Tate Reeves saying the change was part of a “new pro-life agenda” to help mothers in a state where abortion is tightly restricted.
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Associated Press/Report For America reporter Michael Goldberg contributed to this report.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.kob.com/news/health/mississippi-eyes-quicker-medicaid-coverage-in-pregnancy-to-try-to-reduce-deaths-of-moms-and-babies/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:25Z
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BENGALURU: TCS is linking hikes and variable payout to complying with its recent return-to-office mandate. Recently, unit heads have written to their respective teams that assigning grades - which are a prerequisite for rolling out promotions - will depend on their track record of working from the office.
TCS offers digital compensation to freshers who have cleared courses assigned to them, making them eligible for higher salaries beyond the Rs 3 lakh annual compensation.
"We are asked to be compliant with the return-to-office. This will be eventually approved for return-to-office complaint cases," sources told TOI. This newspaper has reviewed communication between TCS's HR team and employees through emails and Teams messages. TCS, however, did not respond to TOI's email on the matter till the time of going to press.
TOI had reported that TCS is asking employees to return to office on all five days of the week. Work from home has ended for some teams. Adding to the confusion, employees have been asked to come to the offices assigned to them and not opt for offices that are closer to their homes.
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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/tcs-promotions-linked-to-returntooffice-mandate/articleshow/107304736.cms
| 2024-01-31T23:51:25Z
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NEOCH contributed $17,200 in cash and other assistance in backing the ballot issue that squared with its mission and, it hoped, would lead to more funding and representation for unhoused Clevelanders in the future.
"We saw that PB CLE could be a way for [the unhoused] to have deeper civic engagement," said NEOCH's Executive Director Chris Knestrick.
The issue, vehemently opposed by Cleveland city council, narrowly failed at the ballot, but the repercussions are still being felt.
Last week, Council okayed legislation that would send $225,000 in city funds to NEOCH and the Metanoia Project to fund emergency shelter work on west side.
But Council President Blaine Griffin, and Council's Finance, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee didn't approve the funds without conditions: NEOCH will have to send the city detailed receipts every 30 days on how it's spending the money, as Signal Cleveland first reported. Without mentioning PB Cle specifically, Griffin painted NEOCH as an organization that had worked against council.
And this week, hours after deploying new rules at Monday's council meeting that would allow him to boot disruptive protestors from chambers, Griffin told Scene it wasn't council that had brought politics into the equation but NEOCH.
"We have some serious concerns whenever we fund organizations that then in turn create a political arm, and for lack of a better word, utilize it to work against us," Griffin said, standing in Council Chambers. Griffin green-lit the dollars, he said, "because we care more about those folks that are unhoused as opposed to getting political retribution.
"We believe that people should organize," he added. "We believe that people should engage residents. But we did not pay for them to lobby, put ballot initiatives and have staff people and other folks work against the interests of what we believe is the best of the city."
In an interview Tuesday, a day after Cuyahoga County doled out $3.9 million to fund a suite of homeless outreach initiatives, Knestrick remained perplexed by Griffin's take.
He told Scene that all of their previous grants require strict receipts for reimbursement—that is to say, Knestrick can't spend a dime of City Hall's dollars without them knowing what it's intended for.
"So there's no possible way to be able to, even if I wanted to take it out," Knestrick said. "And our housing justice positions are not even funded by the city."
NEOCH had also drawn the ire of Councilman Mike Polensek after the organization led support for Euclid Beach mobile home residents forced out by the Western Reserve Land Conservancy's decision to turn the land into a park. (“I don’t know what they do, and they receive funding — and I couldn’t tell you, if my life depended on it — besides causing problems or trying to agitate council members,” Signal quoted Polensek as saying recently about NEOCH.)
The $225,000 NEOCH and Metanoia will receive in February will go solely to seasonal shelters, which will help temporarily house about 300 people.
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https://www.clevescene.com/news/blaine-griffin-denies-playing-politics-with-homeless-funding-for-neoch-but-still-sore-at-pb-cle-support-43614041
| 2024-01-31T23:51:26Z
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(Bloomberg) -- An ex-member of the Bank of Canada’s governing body says he believes the central bank will start cutting interest rates in about six months if inflation pressures ease as expected.
Policymakers will wait until they see underlying price pressures cool, even if the economy has entered a period of excess supply, former Deputy Governor Paul Beaudry said.
“I wouldn’t see the potential of rate cuts until probably the July decision," Beaudry said in an interview with Avery Shenfeld, the chief economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. The bank is scheduled to release a decision on July 24.
Last week, policymakers led by Governor Tiff Macklem kept the benchmark overnight rate at 5%, but said their focus has turned to how long they’ll need to keep borrowing costs need this high. Markets and economists see the Bank of Canada starting rate cuts at the June 5 meeting.
In the interview, Beaudry reiterated his belief that the neutral rate — the level of interest rates that neither stimulate nor restrict the economy — may be higher now than before the pandemic. The neutral rate is impossible to calculate precisely, but the Bank of Canada creates its own estimate for it.
If the neutral rate is higher, it suggests central banks may be more cautious about how deeply and swiftly they cut rates.
The most difficult scenario for the Bank of Canada would be one in which inflation expectations are stuck at an elevated level — for example, if Canadians become accustomed to 3% inflation and bank officials feel the need to “attack it," Beaudry said. “We haven’t ruled it out in the case of Canada."
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The central bank’s long-run target is 2% inflation.
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https://www.livemint.com/news/rate-cuts-to-start-in-july-former-bank-of-canada-official-says/amp-11706726306677.html
| 2024-01-31T23:51:27Z
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Deadly school bus crash in Ohio yields new safety features and training — but no seat belt mandate
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — After a deadly school bus crash last summer, a task force convened by Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recommended Wednesday more training, driver benefits and safety features — but not a seat belt mandate.
How and when safety upgrades are made would be up to individual school districts, DeWine said at an event releasing the Ohio School Bus Safety Working Group’s final report. He said his office has begun discussions with the Legislature about establishing a grant fund to help school districts pay for vehicle upgrades or new safety-enhanced buses.
DeWine created the working group in August, after a school bus crash in Clark County’s Lawrenceville, about 55 miles (88.51 kilometers) southwest of Columbus, left one child dead and 23 others injured.
“We know that buses are the safest way to transport children to school; that remains true,” he said Wednesday. “But when we have a tragedy like this, I think it’s important for us to reexamine what we can do to make the trips that our kids are taking, and grandkids are taking, as safe as we can.”
The working group issued 17 recommendations. Sixteen related to bus driver recruitment and retention, training and education, school bus safety features, road and traffic safety, and emergency response.
Ohio Public Safety Director Andy Wilson said the group stopped short of recommending that the state mandate that all school buses have seat belts, instead leaving the decision to individual school districts.
“As a group — after hearing form the experts, hearing from our bus drivers, looking at the data or the lack of data from states that have mandated seat belts, and listening to the school districts who have tried pilot programs on their buses — we became convinced that the statewide mandate of seat belts on buses is not the most effective use of government resources to keep our kids safe,” he said.
Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Director Stephen Dackin said adding seat belts to a bus costs about $19,000. By contrast, the other twelve safety features the group recommended — including collision avoidance systems, electronic stability control, lighted crossover mirrors and fully illuminated stop arms at the front and rear — would cost about $13,000 per bus.
The final recommendation, involving commercial bus services, addressed a second Ohio bus crash that took place even as the task force was working. In that November accident, a charter bus of high school students was rear-ended by a semi truck on an Ohio highway, killing six and injuring 18.
To address private buses, the working group recommended that school districts adopt policies requiring “thorough evaluation of contracted commercial bus services.”
For public school bus drivers, the group recommended that the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce develop a uniform training curriculum, as well as a regional advanced training program, and that Ohio require six hours of training for drivers each year. The grant program DeWine has in mind would allow the state to offer the training to school districts at no cost, he said.
Other recommendations include improved access to professional development, wellness support and regular performance reviews for bus drivers, expanded engagement with parents and the public, school zone and bus route safety audits, and enhanced penalties for drivers of other vehicles who violate traffic laws in school zones or around school buses.
According to state data, between 2018 and 2023, the other driver was at fault in 68% of school bus crashes involving minor injuries, in 80% of crashes involving serious injuries; and in 75% of crashes involving fatalities.
DeWine said about 13,000 school buses are operating in Ohio at this time, but school districts typically don’t replace them all at once, but perhaps at a pace of one or two a year. New buses run about $120,000, Dackin said.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://kstp.com/kstp-news/business-news/deadly-school-bus-crash-in-ohio-yields-new-safety-features-and-training-but-no-seat-belt-mandate/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:27Z
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Drugmaker Biogen is pulling the plug on its controversial Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm, following disappointing sales. It had been expected to be a blockbuster product.
Copyright 2024 NPR
Drugmaker Biogen is pulling the plug on its controversial Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm, following disappointing sales. It had been expected to be a blockbuster product.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kvcrnews.org/2024-01-31/expected-to-be-a-big-deal-alzheimers-drug-is-pulled-after-disappointing-sales
| 2024-01-31T23:51:28Z
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Death Stranding 2 Story and Gameplay Revealed in Extended Trailer, Releasing in 2025 - State of Play 2024
Hideo Kojima's anticipated sequel appears at State of Play, and we've learned tons of new details.
After a tease yesterday from Hideo Kojima, we finally have a new Death Stranding 2 trailer featuring a host of story details. We also have a subtitle, On the Beach, and a release window: 2025.
As part of the first State of Play of 2024, Kojima Productions debuted a brand-new trailer for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. Norman Reedus appears in the trailer, where we get a glimpse at this armory as he gets a tour of a ship.
His character, Sam Bridges, is working for a civilian outfit called Drawbridge who has a "generous patron." Sam is once again setting out to unite the world and bringing new areas into the network, and he's carrying a strange little puppet who hangs at his side (and seems to move at a lower frame-rate than the rest of the game.
The trailer features numerous environments, suggesting that it will be considerably more ambitious than the previous game.
"You helped bring America together, helped it become the UCA, but I'm afraid the Death Stranding is far from over. Humanity is still on danger, still on the brink of extinction," the narrator says.
As part of the gameplay, we also get a glimpse of Higgs as a robo-samurai character who looks like Sting and wields an arc welder-like electric guitar. Yep, it's a Hideo Kojima game. We also get a hint of BB-28's fate, and numerous other characters make a return as well.
Here's the official description.
Embark on an inspiring mission of human connection beyond the UCA. Sam—with companions by his side—sets out on a new journey to save humanity from extinction. Join them as they traverse a world beset by otherworldly enemies, obstacles and a haunting question: should we have connected? Step by step, legendary game creator Hideo Kojima changes the world once again.
Before today's trailer, with little information on Death Stranding 2, we only knew when the game was announced at the 2022 Game Awards. Kojima would later reveal that he had to rewrite the script for Death Stranding 2 because he "didn't want to predict any more future."
This week has been exciting for Death Stranding fans. Aside from today's news about Death Stranding 2, yesterday, Kojima Productions released Death Stranding: Director's Cut on Apple devices, including the iPhone 15 Pro. The developer also collaborated with Backbone to release a limited-edition Backbone One controller to coincide with the port's release date.
Yet Death Stranding is expanding beyond just gaming. In December 2022, it was revealed that a film based on the first Death Stranding game was in the works. Last December, it was revealed that A24, in collaboration with Kojima Productions, is working to adapt the game for the big screens.
In addition to Death Stranding 2, Hideo Kojima and his studio are working on a new project known as OD. The announcement was made at the 2023 Game Awards and is a project in collaboration with Xbox Game Studios. The first trailer revealed that Jordan Peele and actress Hunter Schafer are involved in the project. He also announced a brand-new action espionage game for PlayStation that will begin development after Death Stranding 2.
Death Stranding 2 was part of PlayStation's State of Play stream, which also included looks at Rise of the Ronin, Stellar Blade, and more. For more, check out our roundup of everything announced during today's stream.
Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
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https://in.ign.com/death-stranding-2/201419/news/death-stranding-2-story-and-gameplay-revealed-in-extended-trailer-releasing-in-2025-state-of-play-20
| 2024-01-31T23:51:28Z
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CHICAGO (WLS) -- Two weeks after walking out of prison on parole, 42-year-old Thomas Kelly is now, officially, a free man.
His murder conviction, along with that of his still-incarcerated co-defendant Jose Tinajero, was thrown out today.
"Justice prevailed. It's been a long road for me. It's been 25 years in prison for this case I had nothing to do with," Kelly said.
SEE ALSO | 5 civil rights lawsuits against city name disgraced former Chicago Police Sgt. Reynaldo Guevara
Convicted of the 1998 beating death of Daniel Garcia in an alley near Whipple and Armitage, Kelly and Tinajero, along with John Martinez, whose case was thrown out nearly a year ago, allege they were coerced into making false confessions to disgraced Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara.
"I had lows in prison, obviously. That interrogation was the worst time of my whole entire life. It trumps everything. My dealings with Guevara were the lowest of the low in my life," Kelly said.
Guevara is accused of framing dozens of men and women, 40 of whom have now been exonerated, between the 1980s and the early 2000s. In court, he has refused to answer questions regarding his alleged actions. He has never been punished. The city is now facing more than a dozen lawsuits involving cases he handled.
READ MORE | 11 exonerees file federal lawsuits against former Chicago detective for coercing false confessions
"In case after case, we see the city of Chicago throwing millions of dollars to outside counsel to defend what are indefensible cases. And it's time for a change. It's time for the city to stop throwing its money away on lawyers and spend money to compensate victims of really egregious misconduct and really change how things are done," said Joel Flaxman, an attorney for Tinajero.
While Kelly is already free, because Tinajero has most recently been imprisoned in Kewanee, which is some 150 miles southwest of Chicago, he has been returned there so his release can be processed. That release could happen as soon as Wednesday.
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https://abc7chicago.com/thomas-kelly-jose-tinajero-wrongful-conviction-reynaldo-guevara/14375794/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:28Z
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A Canadian harness racing trainer accused of hitting a horse at an upstate New York facility so hard that it had to be euthanized was arrested after he returned to the US on Tuesday. Law enforcement sources and PETA officials tell the Times Union that 25-year-old Frederick Bourgault hit the animal with a metal pipe after it stepped on his foot at the Pine Bush Training Facility in July. A veterinarian was called in to euthanize the horse, and it was buried at the facility around 60 miles north of New York City, the AP reports. The horse, named Finish Line, was exhumed after police received a complaint from PETA and launched an investigation. PETA said it was contacted by a whistleblower.
"This was an incredibly powerful blow to the horse's head, above his eye, which caused this fracture," Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said, per the Times Union. "There was no remedy or medical procedure to treat that injury." Bourgault has been charged with two felonies, criminal mischief and causing injuries to a domestic animal. The trainer has been fined at least three times in recent years for excessively whipping horses in the US and Canada. In 2022, he was fined $1,000 and ordered to go to anger management classes after he whipped a horse that lost a race at New York's Monticello Speedway. He was fined again last year.
"As a society we cannot tolerate the mistreatment of horses or other animals, who cannot protect themselves," Hoovler said in a statement. PETA said it is one of the worst cases of cruelty to a racehorse it has encountered. "Bourgault is a repeat offender who should have been booted from racing years ago and banned the first time he whipped a horse after a race was over," said Kathy Guillermo, PETA senior vice president. (More horse racing stories.)
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https://www.newser.com/story/345801/da-trainer-fatally-injured-horse-with-powerful-blow.html
| 2024-01-31T23:51:28Z
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'Harmful' macho attitudes still prevalent in Aussie men
Australian men who strongly endorse rigid masculine attitudes are more likely to have physically or sexually abused their partner, research shows.
The study, conducted by the Jesuit Social Services and supported by state agency Respect Victoria, surveyed 3500 Australian men aged 18 to 45 on their perceptions of and belief in rigid masculine norms.
It found a quarter agreed what it calls the "Man Box" rules, which include notions that men should be tough, not show emotion, be the breadwinner, be in control, use violence to get respect and have numerous sexual partners.
When compared with the men who least strongly disagreed with the 19 rules, the men who strongly agreed were:
* 31 times more likely to believe domestic violence should be handled privately
* 17 times more likely to have hit their partner
* Nine times more likely to blame a woman for making a man hit her
* Eight times more likely have thoughts of suicide nearly every day
* Six times more likely to have forced a partner to do something sexual that is degrading or humiliating
* Six times more likely to exhibit signs of problem gambling
* Twice as likely to binge drink
The alarming data sheds new light on the negative impacts of believing in outdated ideas of masculinity, Jesuit Social Services executive director of community and systems impact Matt Tyler said.
"These Man Box pressures tell men to be tough, fight back, never say no to sex and avoid household chores. They box men in and limit their potential," Mr Tyler said.
"Our research finds that when men believe these rules, the results can be devastating for people in their lives, particularly women, as well as for men themselves."
While researchers acknowledge more support is needed for men to challenge these attitudes, report contributor Michael Flood said there is reason for hope.
"Most Australian men don't believe these harmful Man Box rules," Professor Flood said.
"The pressure men feel to conform to Man Box rules has lessened over the past five years and there is diversity within boys' and men's views.
"We now need to build on this momentum, and support men to express positive forms of masculinity, reduce risky behaviours, and build lives free from violence."
The report recommends policy change, building workforce capacity, raising community awareness and future research.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Lifeline 13 11 14
beyondblue 1300 22 4636
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-13030753/Harmful-macho-attitudes-prevalent-Aussie-men.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
| 2024-01-31T23:51:28Z
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Laws on abortion are out of step with public opinion. One Republican legislator in Tennessee is working to establish exceptions to his state's strict abortion laws, but he faces a tough battle.
Copyright 2024 NPR
Laws on abortion are out of step with public opinion. One Republican legislator in Tennessee is working to establish exceptions to his state's strict abortion laws, but he faces a tough battle.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kvpr.org/2024-01-31/a-tennessee-lawmaker-helped-pass-a-strict-abortion-law-hes-now-trying-to-loosen-it
| 2024-01-31T23:51:29Z
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Basketball Roundup: St. Al, Warren Central, Vicksburg all take district losses
Published 1:38 pm Wednesday, January 31, 2024
The good news for the St. Aloysius Flashes is that their place in the MAIS Class 5A South State boys’ basketball tournament is secure.
The bad news is that the hot streak that got them there is over.
Korey Sims had his third double-double in four games, with 11 points and 14 rebounds, but St. Al had its four-game winning streak snapped with a 58-46 road loss against Cathedral on Tuesday.
Anthony McCloud led St. Al (15-11, 3-4 MAIS District 4-5A) with 14 points, Laken Bradley scored seven and Carter Henderson had six.
Other results around the league have ensured the Flashes will finish in the top four in the district and advance to the South State tournament at Oak Forest Academy in Amite, La. Where they’ll be seeded, however, is still up in the air.
Copiah Academy clinched the district championship by beating Adams County Christian School 60-49 on Tuesday. ACCS will be the No. 2 seed from District 4-5A. There is no district tournament.
St. Al, Cathedral (14-16, 2-5) and Providence Classical are battling for the last two spots, and Cathedral and Providence play each other Friday.
St. Al finishes the regular season against Copiah Academy on Thursday. If the Flashes win, or if it and Cathedral both lose, St. Al will will finish third. If St. Al loses and Cathedral wins, then Cathedral will be the No. 3 seed and St. Al will be fourth.
Columbus 82, Warren Central 75, OT
Gaylon Turner scored 30 points, but Warren Central’s late-season slide continued with an overtime loss to Columbus on Tuesday.
Roosevelt Harris added 11 points for the Vikings (12-14, 3-6 MHSAA Region 2-6A), while Teryn Green scored eight and Jaylon Winters had seven.
Warren Central has lost three games in a row after winning the previous three. It is in a three-way tie with Callaway (13-12, 3-6) and Neshoba Central (13-14, 3-7) for the No. 4 seed in next week’s Region 2-6A tournament, with one game left in the regular season.
The Vikings will host first-place Vicksburg High at 7:15 p.m. Friday.
Columbus (17-7, 5-4) is locked in as the No. 3 seed for the region tournament, which begins Monday at Callaway High School in Jackson. The tournament schedule will not be finalized until after Friday’s games conclude the regular season.
Ridgeland 77, Vicksburg 57
Vicksburg has had its way with most of Region 2-6A this season — with the exception of Ridgeland.
Phil Nelson scored 19 points, Stevent Watkins, Ebo Wilson and Morris Hammond added 16 apiece, and Ridgeland (19-8, 7-3 Region 2-6A) beat Vicksburg (19-5, 7-2) for the second time this season.
Davian Williams led Vicksburg with 17 points and Michael Johnson scored 13. Kameryn Bailey also scored nine points and Tyler Henderson finished with eight.
The Gators were held to three field goals in the second quarter as Ridgeland opened up a 36-25 halftime lead, and the Titans pulled away from there.
Despite the loss, the Gators still control their path to the No. 1 seed in the Region 2-6A tournament. They will clinch it by beating Warren Central in the regular-season finale Friday night.
A Vicksburg loss would hand the top seed to Ridgeland and drop the Gators to No. 2. The top two teams will receive a first-round bye in the six-team tournament, however, and whatever order they finish in those will go to Vicksburg and Ridgeland.
Girls
Ridgeland 65, Vicksburg 26
Ridgeland (14-10, 5-5 Region 2-6A) outscored Vicksburg 41-9 over the second and third quarters and cruised to an easy victory in a girls’ basketball game on Tuesday.
Kierra James led Vicksburg with nine points, six rebounds and three assists. No other player scored more than four points. The Missy Gators also committed 42 turnovers.
Ridgeland clinched the No. 3 seed in next week’s Region 2-6A tournament in Jackson, and will play Warren Central in the first round. Warren Central (0-26, 0-9) lost 61-5 to Columbus on Tuesday and is the No. 6 seed in the six-team tournament.
Neshoba Central (25-1, 9-0) is the No. 1 seed, and Callaway (19-7, 8-2) is No. 2.
Vicksburg (7-18, 4-5) will be the No. 4 seed and face Columbus (3-19, 2-7) in the first round. The Missy Gators won both regular-season meetings.
Vicksburg will finish the regular season Friday by heading across town to play Warren Central. Tip-off is at 6 p.m.
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https://www.vicksburgpost.com/2024/01/31/basketball-roundup-st-al-warren-central-vicksburg-all-take-district-losses/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:29Z
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A look from Maui six months after devastating wildfires By Debbie Elliott Published January 31, 2024 at 3:39 PM MST Facebook Twitter Flipboard LinkedIn Email Listen • 5:06 As we approach the six-month anniversary of the Maui fires, we look at the biggest issues that people on the island are still facing. Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.mtpr.org/2024-01-31/a-look-from-maui-six-months-after-devastating-wildfires
| 2024-01-31T23:51:29Z
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Whether the guy who jumps from behind the fence and scares your kids, the guy who tears down your decorations and threatens your life, or the lady who calls the police when your kids walk by just going to the park, many of us have had difficult neighbors at one time or another.
What are some of the tools you can use? Does the city, or do the police, have a role? When should you go it alone? Might you get an attorney?
Tonight on Your Legal Rights, YLR host, Jeff Hayden, is joined by Municipal Attorney Lance Bayer and East Bay attorney Nabiel Ahmed, who helps his clients obtain or resist restraining orders.
Questions for Jeff and his guests? Please call us, toll-free, at (866) 798-8255.
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https://www.kalw.org/show/your-legal-rights/2024-01-31/how-to-cope-with-your-neighbor-from-h-ll
| 2024-01-31T23:51:29Z
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New research by a team led by UC San Diego astrophysics graduate student Aravind Bharathi Valluvan has discovered a significant number of slow-building solar flares, which could change our understanding of these phenomena.
Solar flares occur when magnetic energy builds up in the Sun’s atmosphere and is released as electromagnetic radiation. They can last from a few minutes to a few hours and reach temperatures of around 10 million degrees Kelvin. Due to their intense electromagnetic energy, solar flares can cause disruptions in radio communications, Earth-orbiting satellites, and even result in blackouts.
In a new paper in Solar Physics, the team explains that solar flares have been classified based on the amount of energy they emit at their peak. However, there has not been significant study into differentiating flares based on the speed of energy build-up since slow-building flares were first discovered in the 1980s.
Using the increased capabilities of the Chandrayaan-2 solar orbiter, researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) used the first three years of observed data to catalog nearly 1400 slow-rising flares — a dramatic increase over the roughly 100 that had been previously observed over the past four decades.
The width-to-decay ratio of a flare is the time it takes to reach maximum intensity to the time it takes to dissipate its energy. Most commonly, flares spend more time dissipating than rising. In a 5-minute flare, it may take 1 minute to rise and 4 minutes to dissipate for a ratio of 1:4. In slow-building flares, that ratio may be 1:1, with 2.5 minutes to rise and 2.5 minutes to dissipate.
According to Valluvan, seeing slow-building flares in such high quantities may change the thinking that solar flares were like the snap of a whip, quickly injecting energy before slowly dissipating. The team identified two different types of flares but believes there may be more.
“There is thrilling work to be done here. We’ve identified two different types of flares, but there may be more. And where do the processes differ? What makes them rise and fall at different rates? This is something we need to understand,” said Valluvan, who now works in UC San Diego Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Steven Boggs’ group.
Understanding more about the speed of energy build-up in solar flares could help us better predict and prepare for the disruptions that they can cause.
Journal Reference
- Valluvan, A.B., Goyal, A., Jain, D. et al. Solar Flare Catalogue from 3 Years of Chandrayaan-2 XSM Observations. Solar Physics 299, 8 (2024). DOI: 10.1007/s11207-023-02244-0
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https://www.techexplorist.com/new-research-uncovers-significant-number-of-slow-building-solar-flares/80381/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:29Z
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Data, analytics and AI company Cynozure has appointed Louise Hutchins to lead on the evolution of its literacy and culture change services in order to ensure that its clients have the behaviours, skills, capabilities and approach needed to deliver value from data and AI . . .
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https://www.loyaltymagazine.com/new-appointment-for-data-company/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:29Z
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PONTIAC, Mich. — (PONTIAC, Mich.) -- Brian Meloche, a longtime friend of Jennifer Crumbley and with whom she was having an affair with at the time of the 2021 Oxford School shooting, took the stand to testify in her manslaughter trial on Wednesday.
In texts sent after the shooting, Jennifer Crumbley told Meloche that the shooting "could have been prevented," according to evidence. In other texts, she told him the school was "nonchalant" about concerns surrounding Ethan Crumbley and said that the school should have taken the concerns seriously and not allowed him to return to class.
Jennifer Crumbley and James Crumbley are each facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the school shooting, which was carried out by their then-15-year-old son Ethan Crumbley. James Crumbley is being tried in a separate trial in March.
Ethan Crumbley has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing four students and injuring seven others in November 2021.
After Jennifer Crumbley's attorney, Shannon Smith, questioned Meloche -- suggesting that police intimidated and threatened him into providing his testimony -- prosecutors sought to allow the judge to include evidence that the two had an affair. In a previous ruling, Judge Cheryl Matthews excluded all evidence regarding their extramarital affair.
The jury was excused from the room and Matthews spoke directly to Jennifer Crumbley, who said she supported her attorney's decision to admit information about the affair into evidence.
Meloche, a fire department captain, initially appeared to testify that police interviewing him threatened his job and benefits, including his pension, if he helped Jennifer Crumbley by refusing to share information. However, he later clarified that he was pressured by police to share information about the Crumbleys but was always told to tell the truth. Meloche admitted on the stand that he did not want his affair to be revealed and had sought to protect his family and wife by withholding information.
Meloche testified Wednesday that Jennifer Crumbley had told him she was able to leave work to meet up with him even though she allegedly told school officials on the day of the shooting that she could not take her son home or for mental health care that day because she needed to return to work.
Jennifer and James Crumbley decided to send their son back to class despite a meeting the morning of the shooting in which school officials expressed concerns about him.
Andrew Smith, the CEO of the real estate company where Jennifer Crumbley worked at the time of the shooting, testified on Tuesday that she would have been allowed to leave for the day if she needed to take care of her son and could have brought him to work if she needed.
Meloche testified about conversations he had with Jennifer Crumbley in the days leading up to and after the shooting. The two texted regularly leading up to the shooting and in the days after it.
Meloche said he regularly deleted the messages between himself and Jennifer Crumbley. He testified that one of the deleted texts from her -- sent on the day of the shooting -- said that the gun was gone. He responded, telling her to contact police.
Meloche told Crumbley in texts before she was arrested that she needed to "disappear" when she was allowed to do so.
Prior to the shooting, Meloche said he was aware that the Crumbleys had gotten a handgun for their son and said he was "surprised" that they chose to do so. Meloche also testified that he did not believe Jennifer Crumbley should have been charged, but has since learned more information that makes him believe otherwise.
Meloche testified he didn't think a shooting would take place, but he thought that Ethan Crumbley might hurt himself.
Evidence shown in court of the text messages also showed an unsent message from Jennifer Crumbley to Meloche in which she told him that the gun was locked with a string lock.
"I'll never be OK I lost my son. And he's a murderer and I'll forever have to live with the guilt of that. I'm not even sure life is worth living anymore," Crumbley said in another message that was never sent.
Meloche testified that the two normally met in the parking lot of a Costco across the street from her job during the morning hours of work days, when Ethan Crumbley was at school. He testified that he never felt that Jennifer Crumbley did not care about her son.
He stopped communicating with Jennifer Crumbley when he saw on the news that police were trying to apprehend her and her husband, Meloche testified. The last time the two communicated was Dec. 4, 2021, he said.
Lt. Sam Marzban, an Oakland County detective, also testified that Jennifer Crumbley did not want to hand over her phone to police and was concerned about being able to contact people while police were conducting a search.
Marzban testified that he told Crumbley she could get a replacement phone and asked that she share the number with police. Marzban said Jennifer Crumbley seemed "irritated and frustrated" but was not crying while police searched their house, just hours after the shooting.
The prosecution said it expects to call two more witnesses Thursday morning before they rest. The defense is expected to begin presenting its case in the afternoon.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wdbo.com/news/national/man-who-had-affair/PSLN4DGWY3JULT5MSTVWMT6JME/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:29Z
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AFCON 2023: All Set For Quarter Final Clashes
Latest News, Sports News Wednesday, January 31st, 2024(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Cote d’Ivoire 2023 round of 16 fixtures were concluded on Tuesday, paving the way for thrilling quarter final clashes.
The African examiner reports that eight teams advanced to the quarter final stage.
The matches played in the round of 16 were close contests, but the best teams made their way to the quarter finals.
Angola qualified after battling to a 3-0 win over Namibia on Saturday to meet Nigeria in the quarter final stage.
Nigeria had defeated their counterpart the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon 2-0 on Jan. 27.
The Super Eagles will then have a stern test against two-time quarterfinalists, Angola’s Palancas Negras, in the quarter final on Friday at the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan at 6.00 p.m.
DR Congo secured a slim victory against a gritty Egpyt on Jan. 28, winning the game via penalty shootout 8-7 after a dramatic 1-1 draw in regular time; they are now set to battle Guinea.
Guinea ended the race of Equatorial Guinea on Sunday with a shock 1-0 win to face DR Congo in the quarter final stage.
Other intriguing match-ups include Monday’s encounter which saw a late penalty that sent Cape Verde through 1-0 against Mauritania.
Host Cote d’Ivoire got through to the quarter finals after an intense penalty shootout (5-4) against defending champions Senegal, after battling out a 1-1-draw in regular time.
Cote d’ ivoire will aim for another upset against Mali.
On Tuesday, in the last round of 16 tie, Mali bundled out opponents Burkina Faso 2-1 to book a place in the quarter final stage to face host Cote d’ ivoire.
South Africa also beat Atlas lions of Morocco 2-0, and will now face the blue sharks of Cape Verde in the quarter final stage.
Following Tuesday night’s last round of 16 tie matches, the stage is now set for several highly anticipated quarter final clashes.
The quarter final matches are scheduled to run from Feb. 2 to Feb. 3.
Below is the full list of the quarter final fixtures and venues.
Friday: Nigeria vs Angola (Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan by 6.00 p.m.)
DR Congo vs Guinea (Olympic Stadium of Ebimpe) by 9.00 p.m.
Saturday: Mali vs Côte d’Ivoire (Stade de la paix Bouake) by 6.00 p.m.
Cape Verde vs South Africa (Stade Charles Konan Banny de Yamoussoukro) by 9.00 p.m.
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Short URL: https://www.africanexaminer.com/?p=93629
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https://www.africanexaminer.com/afcon-2023-all-set-for-quarter-final-clashes/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:30Z
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A group of U.S. citizens filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday charging that the Hamas-led massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, which killed 1,200 people and injured thousands more, was “masterminded and funded by the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Among the 67 plaintiffs are people who were injured or taken hostage, as well as family members of those who were murdered.
“Iran bears direct responsibility for the October 7 Attacks,” according to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. “Indeed, that point is essentially undisputed. The Iranian regime has openly flaunted its motive for aiding the horrors.”
While it’s not clear what role Iran played in the attacks, a former U.S. intelligence and military officer said in October that the sophisticated tactics Hamas used to attack Israel indicated Iran most likely played a significant role in the multipronged assault.
In what appears to be the first attempt to hold it legally accountable for the bloody surprise attack that sparked the current war in Gaza, the plaintiffs contend that Iran, the “sworn enemy of Israel and the United States,” used Hamas to sabotage the ongoing diplomatic attempts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
“As potential Israeli normalization with Saudi Arabia progressed, Iran prepared to reset the regional balance, including by attempting to unite Arab states around the Palestinian cause,” says the lawsuit, brought by the law firm Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart and Sullivan LLP.
Iran’s Mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We expect to prove our case by several means, including affidavits from our clients as well as reports from experts on Iran and terror financing,” attorney Alex Spiro said in a statement to NBC News.
According to a State Department report, “Country Reports on Terrorism 2021,” “Hamas has received funding, weapons, and training from Iran and raises funds in Persian Gulf countries.”
From April to June 2023, Iranian leaders met with leaders of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or PIJ, and other affiliated militant groups in Syria and Iran “to encourage further acts of terrorism against Israel,” according to the lawsuit.
By August, commanders of the Quds Force — one of five branches of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, specializing in unconventional warfare and military intelligence — were meeting twice a week in a “Beirut war room” with “Hamas, PIJ, Hezbollah, and other Iranian-backed terror groups,” the lawsuit says, citing The Wall Street Journal and other published news reports.
Among those at the meetings was Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, the lawsuit says.
Finally, on Oct. 2, the Iranians gave the “green light for Hamas, PIJ, and the other Iran-backed groups to launch the pre-planned attack against Israel, using Iranian intelligence, training, and military supplies,” it says.
Five days later, Hamas attacked southern Israel.
“That attack was an infamous, premeditated, and coordinated massacre in which terrorists murdered 1,200 people and injured nearly 5,000 more in the deadliest killing of Jews since the Holocaust,” the lawsuit says.
To “illustrate the depravity of Iran’s wrongdoing,” the plaintiffs recounted in the court papers some of the previously reported horrors that were visited on the Israeli victims on Oct. 7.
Among others, the lawsuit described how an American citizen named Yahonatan Siman-Tov, his wife, Tamar, and their three children choked to death after Hamas militants torched their home in the Nir Oz kibbutz. Their story was detailed in The Times of Israel.
“Their charred bodies were discovered holding onto one another in a final embrace, evocative of scenes from Nazi death camps,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also recounts how Hamas-led terrorists “systematically murdered about 260 people” at the Nova music festival and how Hamas-led terrorists raped and killed many women.
To further buttress their case of violence and cruelty, the plaintiffs also included in the lawsuit photos of what appear to be dozens of men and women who were killed at the festival.
Among the images are graphic depictions of death, including images described as a “woman gagged and burned,” a “woman bound and burned” and a “beheaded baby.”
The plaintiffs, who, according to the lawsuit, are 60 U.S. citizens “and their family members who were victims of the October 7, 2023 attack in Southern Israel,” say Iran was directly responsible for what happened.
They are seeking unspecified punitive damages, damages from the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, attorneys’ fees and “any and all other relief the Court deems just and proper,” the lawsuit says.
“Iran’s provision of funds, weapons, munitions, training, and intelligence to Hamas and PIJ provided those terror groups with material support and resources used to murder, torture, take hostage, and otherwise injure Plaintiffs, along with Israeli men, women, elderly, teenagers, children, toddlers, infants, and others,” it says.
And Iran, the plaintiffs said in the lawsuit, needs to be punished.
“In many places across the world, Iran’s actions have been met with silence,” the lawsuit says. “But Plaintiffs will not be silent. And the laws of the United States are not silent either.”
The plaintiffs “therefore bring this action to vindicate their rights and those of their loved ones—and to hold the government of Iran accountable,” the lawsuit says.
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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/victims-hamas-attack-israel-families-blame-iran-new-federal-lawsuit-rcna136571
| 2024-01-31T23:51:31Z
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Alec Baldwin pleads not guilty to involuntary manslaughter charge in fatal film set shooting
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Actor Alec Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer during a rehearsal on a Western movie set in New Mexico.
Court documents filed Wednesday show Baldwin entered the plea in state district court in Santa Fe, waiving an arraignment that had been scheduled to take place remotely by video conference the next day.
Baldwin, the lead actor and a co-producer on the Western movie “Rust,” was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the gun went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.
A grand jury in Santa Fe indicted Baldwin in January after prosecutors received a new analysis of that gun, renewing a charge that prosecutors originally filed and then dismissed in April 2023. Baldwin faces up to 18 months in prison if convicted.
Baldwin remains free pending trial under conditions that include not possessing firearms, consuming alcohol or leaving the country. Baldwin can have limited contact with witnesses when it comes to promoting “Rust,” which has not been released for public viewing. Baldwin is prohibited from asking members of the “Rust” cast or crew to participate in a related documentary film.
Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the gun fired.
“Halyna and I had something profound in common, and that is that we both assumed the gun was empty … other than those dummy rounds,” Baldwin told George Stephanopoulos in an interview broadcast in December 2021 on ABC News.
The grand jury indictment provides special prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis with two alternative standards for pursuing the felony charge against Baldwin.
One would be based on the negligent use of a firearm. A second alternative for prosecutors is to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Baldwin caused the death of Hutchins without due caution or “circumspection,” also defined as “an act committed with total disregard or indifference for the safety of others.”
An analysis of the gun conducted by Lucien and Michael Haag of Forensic Science Services in Arizona concluded that “the trigger had to be pulled or depressed sufficiently to release the fully cocked or retracted hammer of the evidence revolver.”
An earlier FBI report on the agency’s analysis of the revolver found that, as is common with firearms of that design, it could go off without pulling the trigger if force was applied to an uncocked hammer, such as by dropping the weapon. The gun eventually broke during testing.
Morrissey and Lewis dismissed the earlier charge after they were informed the gun might have been modified before the shooting and malfunctioned.
The grand jury heard from a “Rust” crew member who was a few feet (meters) from the fatal shooting and another who walked off the set before the shooting in protest of working conditions. Weapons forensics expert Michael Haag, a Mississippi-based movie armorer and a detective with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office also testified.
“Rust” weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed also has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, with a jury trial scheduled to start Feb. 22. She has pleaded not guilty to that charge and a second charge of tampering with evidence in Hutchins’ death.
Gutierrez-Reed also was charged with carrying a gun into a downtown Santa Fe bar days before she was hired to work as the armorer on “Rust.” She has pleaded not guilty to that charge, too.
The fatal shooting of Hutchins resulted in a series of civil lawsuits, including wrongful death claims filed by members of Hutchins’ family, centered on accusations that Baldwin and producers of “Rust” were lax with safety standards. Baldwin and other defendants have disputed those allegations.
“Rust” assistant director and safety coordinator David Halls pleaded no contest to unsafe handling of a firearm last March and received a suspended sentence of six months of probation. He agreed to cooperate in the investigation of the fatal shooting.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.kob.com/news/us-and-world-news/alec-baldwin-pleads-not-guilty-to-involuntary-manslaughter-charge-in-fatal-film-set-shooting/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:31Z
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Paytm on Wednesday faced unprecedented action from RBI, which virtually put on hold services offered through Paytm Payments Bank starting March. While transfers and withdrawals are allowed, you will not be able to top up your wallet or Fastag, or deposit money in an account after Feb 29. TOI explains how RBI's action against Paytm will affect users...
Will UPI payments through Paytm be possible?RBI's actions are likely to affect those who have linked UPI to their Paytm Payments Bank account. Money can be transferred into a Paytm Payments Bank account until Feb 29, which can then be used until it runs out. However, if your UPI address is linked to other bank accounts, like SBI, or ICICI Bank, RBI's action will not impact you.
Will merchants accept money via Paytm?Merchants acquired by Paytm - those who receive money into a Paytm Payments Bank account - will not be able to accept payments as fresh credit into these accounts will not be permitted. However, many of them have other companies' QR stickers, which will allow them to continue accepting digital payments.
What happens to your wallet balance?The best option is to transfer wallet balance back to your bank account (free of cost). You can also use the funds lying there by paying electricity or phone bills until you exhaust the balance.
What about sub-wallets like food and fuel?RBI has barred Paytm from accepting funds into any prepaid instruments, including NCMC (national common mobility cards) used in metros, and food, fuel wallets. While existing balance can be used, no fresh funds can be added after Feb 29.
What if you have a Fastag issued by Paytm?Paytm Fastag users should purchase a new tag from other issuers and deactivate the existing one.
What about loans taken through Paytm?Borrowers will have to continue to make their repayments as these loans are by third-party lenders and not Paytm. Failure to repay or any delay would impact their credit score.
What happens to stock, mutual fund services?These services are regulated by Sebi and are not covered under RBI's order. It is unclear whether Sebi will review their operations after RBI's action.
What happens to Paytm's payment gateway?Some large government platforms have multiple payment gateways. Smaller entities may have to shift.
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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/what-happens-to-your-paytm-wallet-fastag/articleshow/107304169.cms
| 2024-01-31T23:51:31Z
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Cuyahoga County’s third executive just finished his first year in office. As he seeks to build a jail campus in Garfield Heights after shepherding through a 40-year sales tax hike extension, and as he prepares to lobby for a desperately needed HHS levy renewal, Chris Ronayne took stock of many of the lingering issues for the county that will need addressing in the coming years in a conversation with Scene. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Scene: Between the scuttling of the sidewalk expansion project and the $25,000 ask to the county for the surveillance grant, do you have to go around town and apologize for your neighbors in Edgewater?
Ronayne: You know, it's an interesting, interesting discussion. For the record, I have recused from the security cam issue, just because I think being of an opinion on it one way or the other might be compromising. The security cam initiative, I analogize personally, it hit me like a piano – one of those cartoons where you're walking down the street and a piano falls out of the sky on you. I heard about it for the first time at county council. I won't comment further on the matter.
But the path, I'll say this. The neighborhood that I live in, I've long lived in. I lived in a triple on West Boulevard in my early, mid twenties. Then I bought a double when I got my first job, and that was at Clifton and 103rd, and then when I got married, I moved around the corner to a bungalow, and then when we had kids, we asked the kids, where do you want to be? And they said we'd like to stay here, and so it was a great moment with my kids, so we stayed in the neighborhood. That was 11 houses from the other house, so I have lived here over 25 years now, probably approaching 30 years, in four blocks. So, on the positive, I want to just say, the neighborhood is conducive to the cycles of life.
I lived in the triple as a student, the double as a single guy, the bungalow when I got married, and the bigger colonial when I had our kids. And I really do tout that experience. And I live on Lake now at 105th, and I live across from a wonderful brownstone and also in kind of a mixed income community.
And you've got different sources of income and probably project-based section 8 on the street. The entirety of that experience to me is, it's actually worked from a zoning perspective. It's worked from an income diversity and diversity of people perspective. I really love the neighborhood.
I feel bad for the initiatives that have come up that have sort of separated people, but you know, the path, I had my opinion on it. I was for it. My kids, you know, were cyclists. I'm a cyclist. I thought connecting the park all the way through to Lakewood was a great initiative.
So I view, as you heard me just talk from West Boulevard to 105 and Lake, I view this whole neighborhood as one. I'm not sure that's a widely held belief. So that's why I bring it up in that context. I've loved this neighborhood. I'm going to keep fighting for these sorts of projects that matter. Inclusivity of the neighborhood, the diversity of the neighborhood. But I look at the neighborhood with a wide lens. I think you know what I'm saying. I look at it with a wide lens, geographically and otherwise.
There was a $2.6 million budget increase for traditional homeless shelters and then the $3 million cobbled together in recent weeks for emergency shelters. The headline the other day basically said city picks up the slack for the county that usually deals with this stuff.
The office of homeless services is a joint office. We've been the principal staff team on that. I'm glad to have the city of Cleveland's strong attention on this. And I really want to partner for success. The end game is housing and permanent support.
In the Housing Justice plan, there’s a need for $38 million with $25 million of that just for new construction, right?
Those numbers, I'm going to trust that you've peeled back a few layers of that onion on those numbers. One thing I'll say, I think we need more dollars and resources in this community for permanent support housing.
Right, because when we talk about reducing homelessness by 25% or whatever by 2027, it’s about housing.
Absolutely. We've had conversations, good ones, with the city of Cleveland, that this is about, rooftops. This is about giving people the dignity of domicile and having a place to be and live.
We're not there yet.
Because a lot of this has to be private dollars, right?
Yes, it does. But I think working in the future with Housing and Urban Development on new ways of thinking as it relates to permanent support housing, that to me is a big gap right now.
The other thing is, I think we have to flex our thinking on how to create housing product. There's opportunity to create a more affordable outcome, housing that works that we may not have even thought of yet. I'm not giving up on the idea of tiny homes, because I think this is a start. I'm not giving up on the idea of modular homes. You have to build them right. But could there be a solution for a stopgap for permanent support housing? And the other thing is I mean we are continuing to invest in our social workers, because there is a link we have to have. People who are looking out for people, whether you call them case managers or whatever. People need help.
You’re also fighting against – pick a suburb, pick a neighborhood – where people oppose new housing projects for the homeless.
I'm gonna give you a news note. I had a family member in my life who lived in an SRO, and I learned that there's a big value proposition to an SRO for that family member when they needed it to have it. It's the first time I ever said that to anybody in the media, but I have an empathy for housing product that services people's needs, and people go through different needs for different reasons in their life. I believe, and I can only account for Cuyahoga County, that we should be working on model practices and zoning that meet people's needs.
Again, as I described, even in my own neighborhood, I look south from my neighborhood and it's great that there are apartments next to a single family next to condominiums next to doubles and triples. And I think it's great that my kids love this neighborhood, and so I guess I'm trying to say by example, the right support, we need supportive zoning supported by leadership in neighborhoods. We had a group home for returning citizens on my street on West 103rd. The guys joined the block club, they joined the book club. It was a whole community, you know? So I do think zoning practices need to be explored in a way that's looking at it from a humanistic standpoint.
Do we have enough senior housing? I was just out in Maple Heights yesterday, and I was happy to see affordable priced senior housing, a 60-unit senior housing development. There’s people with various levels of need and they're in every community. I think our planning commission can be a partner in model zoning ordinances.
How does this tie in to the Housing Justice plan, with fair chance housing legislation.
I think it does. And I think also source of income is important. This is a community of people who are sympathetic to people who are in need, and I'm confident that our HHS levy is going to prove that out again.
So, source of income and fair chance housing. Let me separate the two. I think source of income is something that I support. We are kind of managing the balance of property owner rights and this tenant management mix. The second part of the question, I think we need to have a community dialogue. And I say this for this reason. There's a discussion in the context of home rule and municipal law. We're a home rule eligible government as are our cities themselves. It shouldn't be a clash of who's got the preeminence. It shouldn't be preempted by the state legislature, but we should have a conversation about this community by community.
Before we get to social workers and, relatedly, re-entry services, I don’t think you've ever answered why you asked Warden Everett to resign. Which I know was mentioned in the Marshall Project article on re-entry as well.
I didn't know you were going to go there on that one because I was just going to talk a little bit about re-entry. I'm really bullish on amping up. Can I just talk about re-entry a bit and come back to it?
Sure, there have been a bunch of issues. I know the new Sheriff told a reporter he didn’t know we had an office. And it’s six miles away.
I'm thinking that as our central services campus gets planned and ultimately built out, I would like re-entry to be as proximate to the jail as possible. And can it be on that campus, because I want somebody to be able to walk out if they're returning home and get services right at the re-entry office or even while they're in our custody if that's appropriate and have a discussion. I want people to have resources at the ready when they leave so they're not just dropped off somewhere. And so I'm really bullish on amping up re-entry for our returning citizens. We are a catchment for returning citizens from state prisons, but also from county jails. And I think we need to be helping people be prepared to return.
That's the long term solution. What's the solution now?
I think continue to internally market it in our own justice system that we're here. It's tightening up that relationship with state corrections. I have talked to the state officials at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections and there's no real gum in our system relative to our communications at least. I think we really need to be good stewards of how people are returning in the community. I say that because a second chance starts with resources, right?
I also want to see diversion amplified in this community. If I had my druthers at the justice services campus, we would have re-entry on campus, but we would also have diversion on campus and a general police order that this is okay to divert under these circumstances.
You asked me about Warden Everett. I don't have anything at this point, because it's still a lingering HR matter.
You’ve addressed in other interviews the appearance of a flip-flop on asking the voters either to weigh in on the jail site or to extend the sales tax to pay for it. We’re passed that now, obviously, but do you think the voters would have approved one or both given the chance?
I don't like to hedge where the voters would be on something. I think if you look at other communities, other counties, other trials and tribulations, be it Lake County or Lucas County as two examples, it's an uphill slog.
And I want to be specific since you asked about my posture on the matter of financing. Whether it will ever be heard, my commentary on this matter was that my perspective was site specific to the Transport Road site. I visited it several times. I sat and talked to reporters from that site. I thought from my past planning perspective, it was remote. It was too small. It was potentially burdened with the legacy of toxicity. And I said, I don't like this site, but if the voters do, let them vote on it. That was sort of construed as a blanket statement for all future matters.
I think a lot of the criticism for the extension of the sales tax was that it is earmarked to nothing, right? It's a way for you guys to fund not only the jail complex, but whatever the county wants down the line.
It's interesting because in my head, as long as I'm serving here, I'm laser focused on utilization of those funds for the purpose of the central services campus. I think when you look at the future pricing of that and the future funds flow for that, coupled with a future courthouse, that will be the majority share of any funds.
That is to me just fait accompli – that that's the mechanism to get these two major lifts done.
There’s a viewpoint that this is just what we do, right? That this will be a slush fund to spend on Browns Stadium, or another MedMart project, that anything left over won’t go back to services.
In all my conversations on this, there's never a contemplation of the utilization of that quarter percent extension for a stadium project or anything of that nature. The focus is what we want to get done with what we have for the central services campus.
I won't ask about Browns Stadium. But it's not the only stadium and sports project going on right now. I know Michael Murphy is trying to put together a soccer specific stadium build and he’s talked to you, the city, the state.
Well, I will say Mike Murphy and Nolan Gallagher are not alone in their proposals, from what I understand, but they're the ones that have been most communicative. I've heard other proposals on other leagues. There hasn't been a formal ask of this yet. I've heard kind of in the wind, the round numbers. There are more than one kind of competing teams in the proposal.
I think if you go to a local pub on a Saturday afternoon in this town, and you watch who's watching what throughout the year, they're watching football with a U, and I like it. I'd be honest with you, if there's a way, I know there's the will and I think there's a community who wants to see something as it relates to soccer.
I'm sort of at this point speaking a little bit at the periphery because the hard and fast presentation asks have not been made in terms of here's what we need, but I'm aware of the overall proposal. And what I do like is the co-location of college sport and high school sport. I think if we're going to be smart about how we go about stadia, arena, a field for soccer and anything else, looking at co-locational opportunities is the way to go.
Are we talking about CSU?
I've heard everything from Cleveland State to St. Ignatius to a lacrosse team we haven't thought of yet, but the ones I've heard are major high schools and colleges.
The other qualifier I wanna make is that I have said over and over again to anybody who will listen, if you're coming to talk with the county about stadia, I want to make sure people are looking out into the community and seeing what our kids are playing on. And there's definitely a tale of two places with cities in Cuyahoga County, where there's really incredible recreational outlets and it generally correlates to income, you know.
I remember a visit when I was campaigning. I was for some reason out at Central Catholic and I walked with the head of school to Morgana Field, and he said, we can't use this. The irrigation system is broken. It looked like a relatively new field, but the irrigation system is broken, so our girls have to play softball on our football field. That stuck with me. I was thinking of a comment that was made in Garfield as I was at a basketball game the other night – excited to see that Garfield Bulldogs doing so well in basketball – but I heard from the mayor that they’re trying to raise money from alumni for a football field. So I just have to think of the balance. This is channeling my old mentor, Norm Krumholz.
You have to channel who pays and who benefits. We have to think about the pickup for some of the deferred infrastructure maintenance and deferred capital improvement on some of our aged local recreational infrastructure.
Because the public will be like, cool, you found $5 million for a soccer stadium but we’re scrounging around for $3 million to fund emergency shelters that need help now.
Right.
Who’s your team, by the way? I fell into Villa thanks to Randy Lerner back in the day and that’s finally paying off.
For a long time I followed Brad Friedel, so I followed him all the way to Tottenham. I don’t even know at this point. I’m going to say the Columbus Crew, because I gotta be local.
What do you think the city owes you guys if the overlay TIF is passed?
What I've done is to keep an open line of communication on this matter with the city, because to your question, I wonder if we can appeal to them to help with some of the significant potential capital projects that we have. They are a partner, frankly, in terms of utilization at the courthouse. It's not just a county courthouse. It serves a big footprint, including the city of Cleveland.
So I want to keep their mind open to, hey, can some of this be used in projects like that. I guess I kind of leave it there. I will say as I'm staring at the painting of the Detroit Superior Bridge…
You’re pet project.
I love that project. There's another one that's potentially project eligible.
You have to always look at the costs and benefits and I've said it repeatedly, there's no free lunch with TIFs. Somebody's paying and somebody's receiving the benefit. I want to see public benefit and perhaps county projects that would otherwise draw on county sources that we could use those sources for other things, especially with the important task of Health and Human Services and Justice Services.
But when I'm looking at this baby, actually underneath it, I was a party to a TIF when we said to the team at Steelyard Commons, very late in the process, that we want to run this Towpath Trail by you, through you, and up north of you. And I don't think it was a huge lift for them, but we exacted a TIF that brought the Towpath Trail and finished the job. So I'm proud of that. And I don't want to be hypocritical that I've been a party with the city of Cleveland to utilize a TIF for community benefit, but I think the Towpath is a great community benefit.
What are you reading right now?
Oh my gosh, that's a great question. So I've been focused on Grisham work. I read recently The Exchange. And then I went back and read Pelican Brief. And for some reason I'm just forcing myself through a trilogy, so I'm reading The Client.But I've done that all since the beginning of the year. I’ve got other picks I would recommend that I finished at the end of last year. As we come up on baseball season, Our Team, which chronicles the interface of Bill Veeck, Larry Doby, Bob Feller, and Satchel Paige, is a great read. I'm sorry, you weren't asking me for book recs, but since I'm offering them…
It’s fine. Once you started with Grisham I feel like you gotta throw some heavier stuff in there now to save face.
I know, exactly. So, on other substantive books, because I've been giving these recommendations for the Cuyahoga Reads program through our Cuyahoga County Public Library, so every month I'm giving them, but, Last Train to Paradise is a good read. It tells the story of the efforts to get the east coast railway down Florida to the Key West and then the rest is history, when Hemingway is fishing people out that had gone through the adversity of the hurricane. That's a good book. It's got a lot of Cleveland ties. The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. We just went through this with our cabinet. I asked everybody for a book idea.
Who’s your favorite reporter and why is it the Galleks?
You asked why is it the Galleks. That’s funny. I did not live in Chicago through the days of Mike Royko, but I did enjoy the book Boss by Mike Royko. I was born in Chicago, lived there for the first 10 years before we moved to Cleveland, and I kind of wished I’d seen the coverage of Chicago politics in its heyday.
I have July 7th as the date the first councilmember said, Chris, the honeymoon is over. That was Scott Tuma. Do you think it ended before or after that?
I actually think our working relationship with council has been solid. There are hiccups here and there. You take an arrow once in a while here and there. I try to just look at the bigger picture. I think some people like to watch the drama. But I think most people want to see us get stuff done. I'd rate our relationship as good.
Did Armond leave you a note on your desk?
No, but he did say this on his way out. He was walking out the door out here, and he said, ‘This is a great job.’ But I will say, at University Circle, when I arrived at my job, I had a note, a very suspicious note on my desk that said, ‘University Circle used to be my Paris.’ I was like, what does that mean?
One thing you’d take back from the past year, do differently.
Okay. Self assessment here. God, we had a fun year. A good year. I gotta be humble and figure out something.
Come on.
That's the toughest question you've asked me.
Things got screwed up somewhere.
Yeah, that's the toughest question you asked me. Oh my gosh, we had just a fun year. I don't know. This is terrible to say because I know, I know I should be more introspective here. Can I pass and come back to that?
Yeah, there's only one left. We asked Mayor Bibb the same thing. Since weed is legal, would you smoke or take a gummy with us?
I'm gonna pass, I'm gonna pass. I’ve got young kids. I'm just gonna keep having my important conversations with them and I don't want to fall and say do as I say, not as I do.
So just tell me something that went wrong.
Okay, alright. We should have had… even more music on the Detroit Superior Bridge than we had. We had some, but we have to celebrate our incredible public spaces with programming. And I think that's something that we should have done.
This isn't very specific, but I do think that we could do more to amp up this music city a lot more. I was at the Beachland Ballroom last night, seeing Brent Kirby after my visit over to Euclid for a public meeting and I was glad I got over there. I think we just are passing on a great opportunity if we don't figure that out. Sean [Watterson] and everyone else, they're trying to figure it out. They got a lot of responses [to the recent survey].
I talked briefly with Cindy and I’m waiting for Cindy and Sean's report to come back on the economics of this. I'm a fan of the music commission idea.
Back to the question. I guess one thing I've encountered a little bit, as busy as we got with big lifts that needed to happen, and we needed to be focused on the justice campus, and the Child Wellness Center, which we didn't talk about but which I'm glad we're moving in a different direction than Jane Edna Hunter – I was pretty focused on fixing what was broken on arrival. And what I probably wish I could have done is made a little more time to communicate. There’s the urgent-important dilemma, and we kind of knocked off some of the urgent, but the important is the important. So I don't know if that's an answer, but I think it's an honest assessment of trying to make enough time for all the communication that needs to happen with people out in the community. It's not you saying that everything was perfect.
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https://www.clevescene.com/news/chris-ronayne-on-funding-for-the-homeless-re-entry-services-a-stadium-not-that-one-and-the-citys-plan-to-tif-downtown-43614032
| 2024-01-31T23:51:32Z
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UK Plans to Ease Brexit Trade Flows to Restore Northern Ireland Government
The UK plans to reduce trade friction on goods flowing between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a move which fell short of an overhaul of Brexit rules but is still expected to persuade the Democratic Unionist Party to end its boycott of the region’s devolved government.
(Bloomberg) -- The UK plans to reduce trade friction on goods flowing between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a move which fell short of an overhaul of Brexit rules but is still expected to persuade the Democratic Unionist Party to end its boycott of the region’s devolved government.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government said it will replace the so-called “green lane" for goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland — part of the effective trade border in the Irish Sea created by the post-Brexit settlement agreed with the European Union — with a new “UK internal market system" that will not require checks. It also plans legislation to guarantee “unfettered access" for Northern Irish goods to the UK internal market.
The measures are part of a package, which includes a £3.3 billion ($4.2 billion) funding boost, agreed with the DUP to end its boycott of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government. Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson has been talking up the concessions and promised to end the protest once the UK published the plan.
However, in a sign of the limited scope and impact of the proposed changes, the UK government said they didn’t need any sign-off from the EU and the bloc made no public objection or protest. “I do not anticipate any particular difficulties in respect of the EU side," Ireland’s deputy premier Micheal Martin told reporters during a visit to Belfast on Wednesday.
“This is a lot more about presentation than substantive change, on a first reading," said Simon Usherwood, professor of politics and international studies at the Open University, adding that he’s surprised the DUP is accepting the plan because it doesn’t alter the basics of the post-Brexit settlement. “But if it gets them out of the hole they dug themselves into, and - more importantly - it restores power-sharing, then that has to be a positive."
Northern Ireland was one of the trickiest issues in divorce talks between Britain and the EU, which culminated in the region retaining a hybrid status inside the EU’s single market for goods and having to impose customs checks on some goods entering the province from the rest of the UK.
Key features of the Brexit settlement are unaffected by the new plan, which will maintain checks on goods intended for Ireland in the EU’s single market.
The challenge for the DUP’s Donaldson is to take his party with him over the coming days when the devolved assembly at Stormont is expected to be re-formed. In a sign that he still has work to do, DUP MPs lined up on Wednesday to criticize the proposals when presented to Parliament by the UK’s Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.
Sammy Wilson, who has opposed any compromise on the Brexit rules, said the ongoing possibility of regulatory divergence between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK was the result of a “spineless, weak-kneed Brexit-betraying government refusing to take on the EU and its interference in Northern Ireland."
“When the Northern Ireland assembly sits, ministers and assembly members will be expected by law to adhere to and implement laws which are made in Brussels, which they had no say over and no ability to amend, and no ability to stop," he said.
Another DUP MP, Carla Lockhart, said “there remains work to do," while Paul Girvan said “we very much feel like we’re being bounced on a timetable."
The opposition to Donaldson’s deal is not expected to prevent the restoration of power-sharing, after the DUP leader said the party’s senior leadership agreed to end the boycott during five hours of talks that ended with a breakthrough in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The risk for Donaldson is likely to be more in the long-term, if he can’t keep the bulk of his party onside once the assembly and Northern Ireland executive is up and running, and his deal with the UK is tested.
The DUP withdrew from the power-sharing government in February 2022, arguing Northern Ireland’s hybrid status in the Brexit deal signed by ex-premier Boris Johnson had undermined its place in the UK. Heaton-Harris called on the party to end the boycott because of the new proposals.
“With this package it’s now time for elected representatives in Northern Ireland to come together to end the two years of impasse," Heaton-Harris said in Parliament. “I trust we will have the conditions to move onward to see ministers back in post in Stormont swiftly."
The UK House of Commons will debate and vote on the proposals on Thursday, Sunak’s spokesman Max Blain told reporters in London. Labour’s spokesman Hilary Benn confirmed his party would back the government at the vote.
“Stability is everything, especially to the people of Northern Ireland after all they have been through," Benn said.
Ending the political impasse would be a significant moment in the history of Northern Ireland, which will get its first nationalist First Minister in Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill.
(Updates with more details from first paragraph.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
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https://www.livemint.com/news/uk-plans-to-ease-brexit-trade-flows-to-restore-northern-ireland-government-11706726244722.html
| 2024-01-31T23:51:33Z
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Taylor Swift + Super Bowl = conspiracy theories. The claims are baseless
The budding love story featuring music superstar Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce took an unexpected turn into the world of political conspiracy theories this week after the team advanced to the Super Bowl.
Myriad baseless rumors emerged on social media — everything from claims that Swift has played a part in Pentagon psychological operations to the idea that she and her two-time Super Bowl champion boyfriend are key assets in a secret plot to help President Joe Biden get reelected in 2024. Another variant: That the Chiefs’ success was rigged as part of the plan for the game on Feb. 11 in Las Vegas.
Political and media figures on the right, including former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, political activist Laura Loomer and One America News Network host Alison Steinberg, have amplified the allegations.
The claims are ludicrous and may well reflect the fear on the right that someone as famous as Swift, whose landmark Eras Tour is the first tour to cross the billion-dollar mark, could indeed influence the presidential race should she urge her legion of fans in one direction.
Pop culture and politics have long been entwined. The entertainment industry has been a deep well of political contributions. And candidates often try to draft on the celebrity of stars to add to their own allure.
The potency of the impact is less clear. In Swift’s case, there is some proof that she can at minimum generate more voter registration.
In September, Swift posted a short message on her Instagram account encouraging her 272 million followers to register to vote. The post led to more than 35,000 registrations on the nonpartisan nonprofit Vote.org.
Swift’s massive fan base gives her a powerful voice. An SSRS poll conducted in October 2023 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults called themselves at least casual fans of the singer, with 8% saying they’re big fans. The poll also found that 8 in 10 U.S. adults said they had heard of her relationship with Kelce and the majority of those familiar with it considered it a real relationship, rather than a publicity stunt.
“Pop culture people identify with this stuff, they pay attention to it. And that’s what moves politics now. It’s attention and identity,” Joel Penney, an associate professor at Montclair State University whose research includes the intersection of politics and pop culture, said. Indeed, Donald Trump’s improbable march to the presidency in 2016 was propelled in part from the celebrity he gained as a reality television star.
But the false claims about Swift are of such an extreme nature that they will test the limits of how potent a conspiracy theory can be. Penney sees the recent deluge of posts aimed at Swift as an attempt to preemptively blunt her impact by discrediting her.
Penney said Swift’s influence could prove a difficult force to contend with, especially if she publicly supports Biden, as she did in the 2020 race.
The attacks on Swift could also galvanize young voters who want to rally around her.
“Young people are fighting their political battles through a language drawn from pop culture,” said Henry Jenkins, a professor at the University of Southern California who also studies politics and pop culture. “That’s what connects them. That’s what they’re engaged with.”
Both Swift and Kelce have made public statements about politics and other issues that put them at odds with the far-right.
Swift broke her long-standing refusal to discuss her political views in 2018 when she announced in an Instagram post that she would be voting for Tennessee’s Democratic Senate candidate Phil Bredesen and Democratic House incumbent Rep. Jim Cooper. She also slammed then-U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, the Republican candidate, citing Blackburn’s opposition to certain LGBTQ+ rights and her vote against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2013. Blackburn won election to the Senate.
In 2020, Swift endorsed Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in an interview with V Magazine, noting that “under their leadership, I believe America has a chance to start the healing process it so desperately needs.”
Kelce faced criticism in September for appearing in an ad promoting the double dose of the flu and COVID-19 vaccines, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The ad was part of a partnership with Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company that developed a vaccine in response to the pandemic and has since become a common mark for anti-vaccine activists and conspiracy theorists.
Pop culture figures and the industry that surround them have been enmeshed in political campaigns long before the duo some fans refer to as Swelce. Former President Bill Clinton first appeared on MTV during his 1992 campaign while he was still governor of Arkansas. Major stars including Johnny Cash, Mary Tyler Moore and Willie Nelson endorsed former President Jimmy Carter more than 40 years ago when he made his second run for the White House. Ronald Reagan got his start in politics after a career as an actor.
“That question of, does this stuff work in pop culture? It absolutely can,” Penney said. “And it does. And history has shown that.”
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://kstp.com/kstp-news/entertainment/taylor-swift-super-bowl-conspiracy-theories-the-claims-are-baseless/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:33Z
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Death Stranding 2
Feb. 1, 2024
Death Stranding 2 Gameplay Trailer | State of Play 2024
A new trailer for Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding 2 shows us new story details and gameplay as well as the return of Sam Porter Bridges and Fragile as they venture beyond the borders of the former United States to prevent the Death Stranding. The sequel is coming to PS5 in 2025.
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https://in.ign.com/death-stranding-2/201423/video/death-stranding-2-gameplay-trailer-state-of-play-2024
| 2024-01-31T23:51:34Z
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Jorge Rubiano arrived alone in Chicago, but his pain and trauma came with him.
For months, he tried to find steady work. For months, he's been sleeping in a crowded temporary shelter, worrying about his wife and mother back in Colombia. Are they safe? Did I make the right decision?
He recalls a frightening phone call with his wife in Colombia, cut short when the bus she was riding on was being robbed.
Rubiano, 43, is also haunted by memories of his harrowing journey to Chicago, during which he says he was kidnapped for a month, before escaping.
He left his country, he says, over a land dispute in which the government threatened his life.
"I'm still in between two dangers," Rubiano says in Spanish. "If I return it's very possible they kill me, and if I stay I don't know what can happen here."
More than 30,000 migrants and asylum seekers have arrived in Chicago since August of 2022 — most of them from South and Central America. They are fleeing the collapse of their economies, a lack of food and jobs, and violence back home.
Many came here on a bus from Texas, sent by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who said Chicago — and other so-called sanctuary cities that embrace immigrants — would provide much-needed relief "to our small, overrun border towns."
The buses haven't stopped since.
Migrants fleeing hardship, danger, fear and loss
Interviews with more than 30 people reveal the emotional toll migrants face, and the efforts of individuals and organizations that are trying to fill the gaps of a frayed mental health system.
Some of those efforts are catching the attention of leaders in other big U.S. cities also coping with large influxes of newly-arrived migrants.
For many, their journeys here were terrifying. A young girl who fell into a river, her pregnant mother struggling to hold her small hand, so the current wouldn't whisk her away. Women who were forced to have sex with gang members to get from country to country. People who walked over the dead in the jungle, or are wracked with guilt over the sick and injured left behind.
Their stories have unfolded across Chicago: in the quiet space of a therapist's office, at an informal healing circle in the back of a store, with a nurse at a folding table propped up outside a police station.
But for many migrants, taking care of their mental health might not be a priority.
"They're in survival mode," says Sharon Davila, a school-based social worker who has screened migrant families. "They need their basic needs met. The number one thing is they're looking for jobs."
Just getting in front of a therapist or a social worker can be extremely difficult for even the most savvy and persistent. With a shortage of mental health workers, wait lists for an appointment can be months long.
Layer on being new to this country, speaking a different language, and having no health insurance. Getting help can seem impossible.
Therapist Susie Moya worries about a mental health crisis brewing for many migrants.
"Right now it's on the back burner," says Moya, who has worked with migrants on Chicago's Lower West Side. "But I'm thinking a year from now when these families are settled in. Who is going to be providing that support?"
Informal support, with a side of soup
It's a Monday night in the back room of an insurance agency on the Southwest Side. About 20 migrants have arranged their chairs in a circle. Each person takes a turn describing how they feel on a scale of one to 10, as social worker Veronica Sanchez gently encourages them to share why.
Warm homemade chicken soup and arepas await them for dinner.
A woman says her husband got deported, and she's heartbroken that she left her children behind. A man says he worked several days that week, but never got paid. Another says he is grateful to God for bringing him to America, but he misses his mom, dad and brothers.
Finding work and reuniting with family is important, Sanchez tells them. But right now she's concerned about their mental health.
"Maybe we have answers. Maybe we don't. But when you open up a safe space where you can share your sorrows... you don't feel so alone," Sanchez says in Spanish.
Sanchez understands the migrants' desperation. She comes from a long line of pottery makers in Mexico. Sanchez was just four years old when her father left to work in Cicero, a suburb outside Chicago. She didn't see her father for almost seven years, until they were reunited as a family in Cicero.
Those memories fuel her work with the healing circle. "When I was talking to them, it really came from the heart," Sanchez says. "I was seeing the migrants' faces, that they were so scared."
Informal support groups like this one have popped up around Chicago in shelters, storefronts, churches and schools, led by volunteers or mental health professionals.
Many of these support groups don't last long. Volunteers get burned out. Migrants prioritize other needs. Or the city moves them from place to place.
The costs of ignoring loss and trauma
Some volunteers and mental health providers emphasize that not every migrant might be experiencing severe trauma.
But for many, trauma can have lasting impact. Trauma can change the wiring in a person's brain and make someone more vulnerable to depression and anxiety.
Daily or ongoing stressors can add up to what Chicago psychologist Laura Pappa calls "little t trauma" — like not feeling welcomed right away.
"A lot of people come here seeking the American dream and they realize that that's not there," says Pappa, who came to the U.S. from Argentina as a teen. "A lot of people were not expecting that, how hard it is on this side. I've had a lot of parents who've come alone and ask themselves, was it worth it?"
It can be hard to persuade migrants to seek help, however. There's a stigma about the need for mental health care in many immigrant communities, particularly among Latino men, Pappa says.
But, she adds, the stigma is easing as talking about emotions becomes more common.
Training the front-line workers in shelters
One effort to provide faster help involves training hundreds of peoplewho don't have a medical background, but work in city-run shelters. These front-line workers, such as case managers and shelter supervisors, are learning to lead support groups called Café y Comunidad charlas — coffee and community talks.
The initiative is led by the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health, the University of Chicago's Crown Family School, and Lurie Children's Center for Childhood Resilience.
The idea is to help migrants feel less isolated and try to prevent the most extreme outcomes, such as suicide.
"We have to help people the minute they arrive," explainsAimee Hilado, an assistant professor at UC's Crown School and chair of the coalition. "That's actually going to promote healing down the line."
Case manager Albert Ayala has led a charla in the ballroom of a downtown shelter. He recalls moments of joy, such as when a woman said she was searching for love — and hands shot up hoping to catch her attention.
Ayala says he's watched migrants who arrive scared and shy blossom after attending a charla.
"We try to tell them we're no different from you," says Ayala, who is Mexican American. "Your dream is possible."
Leaders in Philadelphia and San Jose have reached out asking how to replicate the effort, Hilado says.
Outside his shelter, Rubiano, the migrant from Colombia, says he hasn't attended one of these support groups. He says he tries to keep busy working on his English skills. And he recently found a full-time job in a supermarket.
He longs for his family, and for the chance to bring them here — once there is a stable life he can offer them.
WBEZ is part of the Mental Health Parity Collaborative, a group of newsrooms covering stories on mental health care access and inequities in the U.S. The Collaborative's partners include The Carter Center, the Center for Public Integrity and newsrooms in select states across the country.
WBEZ's Manuel Martinez contributed to this report.
Copyright 2024 WBEZ
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https://www.kvcrnews.org/2024-01-31/for-chicagos-new-migrants-informal-support-groups-help-ease-the-pain-and-trauma
| 2024-01-31T23:51:34Z
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A federal judge threw out Disney's First Amendment lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday, finding that the company doesn't have legal standing to bring the case against the governor and the secretary of the state's Commerce Department. And the suit against members of the board of a special improvement district "failed on the merits," said Judge Allen Winsor, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Disney suggested it will appeal the ruling, saying in a statement, "We are determined to press forward with our case."
The company says the Florida government was retaliating against it for opposing the legislation, supported by DeSantis, known as the "Don't Say Gay" bill when it started to dismantle the district that provides services to the company's theme parks. "If left unchallenged, this would set a dangerous precedent and give license to states to weaponize their official powers to punish the expression of political viewpoints they disagree with," a company statement said Wednesday.
DeSantis filled the board with his supporters, but Winsor, who was appointed by former President Trump, said Disney did not show it suffered any harm because of that, per NBC News. This was "in the past," Winsor wrote. The state and Disney are still engaged in a legal case over land use agreements in a Florida court, per Politico. Florida officials did not immediately comment on Wednesday's ruling. DeSantis repeatedly brought up his battle with Disney in his recently ended presidential campaign. (More Walt Disney Co. stories.)
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https://www.newser.com/story/345805/disneys-florida-suit-is-tossed.html
| 2024-01-31T23:51:35Z
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Mississippians are turning the Grammy Awards Blue
Published 3:18 pm Wednesday, January 31, 2024
The 2024 Grammys will have six Mississippians nominated in the genre of Blues, one of which has a personal and professional link to Vicksburg.
Castro “Mr. Sipp” Coleman represented Vicksburg at the International Blues Challenge (IBC) in 2013 and 2014, winning the IBC in 2014.
Coleman is nominated for two Grammys this year, as is Blues legend Bobby Rush.
Coleman is nominated in the Best Traditional Blues Album category for his new album entitled, “The Soul Side of Sipp.” He is also nominated in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for his contribution to the album, “The Count Basie Orchestra, Swings The Blues.”
Rush is nominated for Best Traditional Blues Album, for his album, “All My Love For You.” He is also nominated for his contribution to the album, “The Count Basie Orchestra, Swings The Blues.”
One of the most popular artists on the Mississippi Blues scene of late is Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, who is nominated for Best Contemporary Blues Album, for his album, “Live in London.”
The other three Mississippians who are up for an award are nominated in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for their contributions to, “The Count Basie Orchestra, Swings The Blues.” They are John Primer, Charlie Musselwhite, and Jamie Davis.
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https://www.vicksburgpost.com/2024/01/31/mississippians-are-turning-the-grammys-blue/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:35Z
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Robinson, Ewing flying Australian flag at Pipeline
Defending Pipeline Pro champion Jack Robinson and fellow Australian big gun Ethan Ewing have avoided the elimination round as surfing in the Hawaii event got underway.
After two lay-days due to strong wind, the World Surf League's season-opening tournament kicked off in heavy swell with the north shore wave face exceeding three metres.
The men were first in the water with six Australians, as well as Sydneysider Connor O'Leary who now surfs under the flag of Japan, in action.
Robinson, who finished last year ranked No.5, pipped 11-time world champion Kelly Slater to win his heat.
The West Australian lodged two consistent waves for a total of 12.27 with American veteran Slater tallying 11.67. Indonesia's Rio Waida was a distant third.
"I was all fired up for that heat, me and Kelly and Rio. It was a good heat," 26-year-old Robinson said.
"I had butterflies before the heat and I was trying to let them fly - first heat, first day. It's good to be back.
"I've got to enjoy it, especially right now I have a baby and my whole family here."
World No.2 Ewing looked headed for a victory in heat five but Maui wildcard Jackson Bunch found a gem in the dying seconds to score 8.77 and jump from third place to first.
Queenslander Ewing still advanced directly into the third round, with American 2024 rookie Cole Houshmand sent to elimination.
Callum Robson lodged the best score of the morning to win the second heat, squeezing through a barrel with six minutes remaining to post a 9.0.
That gave the northern NSW surfer the win with 13.67 ahead of three-time world champion Gabriel Medina, 12.33, with another Brazilian Deivid Silva into the knockout round.
Newcastle's Ryan Callinan was another heat-winner while Queensland's Liam O'Brien faces a must-win battle after placing third in his heat, won by Italian Leo Fioravanti.
Championship Tour newcomer Jacob Wilcox from Western Australia is still to take to the water.
Reigning world champion Felipe Toledo could only muster a two-wave total of 1.77 to move into the knockout round.
His heat was won by Hawaiian teenager Shion Crawford, who scored 9.27.
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-13030755/Robinson-Ewing-flying-Australian-flag-Pipeline.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
| 2024-01-31T23:51:35Z
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Southern Gaza has seen the heaviest fighting over the past few weeks. But bombing has restarted in the north and the humanitarian situation has worsened there.
Copyright 2024 NPR
Southern Gaza has seen the heaviest fighting over the past few weeks. But bombing has restarted in the north and the humanitarian situation has worsened there.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kvpr.org/2024-01-31/as-israel-resumes-bombing-in-the-north-thousands-of-gazans-face-desperate-conditions
| 2024-01-31T23:51:35Z
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Laws on abortion are out of step with public opinion. One Republican legislator in Tennessee is working to establish exceptions to his state's strict abortion laws, but he faces a tough battle.
Copyright 2024 NPR
Laws on abortion are out of step with public opinion. One Republican legislator in Tennessee is working to establish exceptions to his state's strict abortion laws, but he faces a tough battle.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.mtpr.org/2024-01-31/a-tennessee-lawmaker-helped-pass-a-strict-abortion-law-hes-now-trying-to-loosen-it
| 2024-01-31T23:51:35Z
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A look from Maui six months after devastating wildfires By Debbie Elliott Published January 31, 2024 at 2:39 PM PST Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 5:06 As we approach the six-month anniversary of the Maui fires, we look at the biggest issues that people on the island are still facing. Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kalw.org/2024-01-31/a-look-from-maui-six-months-after-devastating-wildfires
| 2024-01-31T23:51:35Z
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Scientists have discovered a fascinating phenomenon that sheds light on the mysteries of the universe. According to a recent study, unhappy atoms reduce brightness.
The study, which was published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, reveals that atoms that are not in their lowest energy state tend to absorb light and, as a result, reduce brightness. This means that when atoms are not happy, they don’t let light pass through them as easily, causing a dimmer appearance.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Jane Smith, explained that this discovery could have far-reaching implications for our understanding of the universe. “Understanding how atoms interact with light is crucial for many fields of science, from astrophysics to quantum computing,” she said.
The team of scientists used advanced imaging techniques to observe the behavior of atoms in different energy states. They found that atoms in a higher energy state tended to absorb light, which reduced the overall brightness of the sample.
The implications of this discovery could be significant for a wide range of fields. For example, it could help scientists better understand the behavior of stars and other celestial bodies, as well as aid in the development of new technologies such as quantum computers.
The team plans to continue their research by further exploring how atoms interact with light in different conditions. They hope that this will lead to even greater insights into the mysteries of the universe and help us better understand the fundamental laws of nature.
Overall, this discovery is an exciting development in the world of science and could have major implications for our understanding of the universe.
Journal Reference
- Morad, V., Stelmakh, A., Svyrydenko, M., Baumketner, A, Kovalenko, MV et al. Designer Phospholipid Capping Ligands for Soft Metal Halide Nanocrystals. Nature (2023), 18 December 2023. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06932-6
- Sercel, PC, Kovalenko, MV, Rainò, G, et al. Single-photon superradiance in individual caesium lead halide quantum dots. Nature (2024), 31 January 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-07001-8
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https://www.techexplorist.com/scientists-discover-unhappy-atoms-reduce-brightness/80376/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:36Z
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British Airways, P&O Cruises, and Hilton Hotels & Resorts among 2024 UK winners; 16% of UK adults now eat meat-free
Celebrating the best vegan food, compassionate policies and animal-friendly innovation, animal protection charity PETA has published its latest travel awards. These celebrate those . . .
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https://www.loyaltymagazine.com/peta-travel-awards-celebrate-animal-conscious-companies/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:36Z
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign spent more of its funds on travel and staff than on ads in 2023, according to a new fundraising report detailing the financial stress on his campaign in its final days.
The campaign spent $3.3 million on “media placement,” which refers to money spent to place ads on the airwaves, over the course of 2023, filings show. But it also spent $2.8 million on travel and another $2.8 million on payroll in 2023, according to figures in his latest fundraising report combined with his campaign’s previously reported spending.
The travel included significant spending on private air travel, the campaign finance records show, while the payroll costs supported a staff headcount that grew quickly and then was cut dramatically within months of the campaign's launch.
The DeSantis campaign’s spending underscores how his team left much of the fight on the airwaves to outside groups. Major pro-DeSantis groups, including the super PAC Never Back Down, spent tens of millions on ads supporting his bid. But it has not yet filed its latest fundraising report.
DeSantis also struggled to grow his donor base, ending the year with a campaign account full of money that he could not use for the primary.
The new fundraising report, filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission, showed DeSantis’ campaign had $9.7 million in its account as of the end of December, less than one month before he dropped out of the race following a second-place showing in the Iowa caucuses.
But much of that money appeared to be only usable in a general election. In 2023, DeSantis’ campaign reported raising $9.1 million in general election funds, which he could not spend on the primary, according to the totals in the year-end filing.
DeSantis’ campaign did ramp up its spending compared to the previous quarter, spending $9.3 million from October through December, including $2 million on ad placement, $866,000 on staff and $659,000 on travel, per a report filed
The report showed 55 staffers on the campaign’s payroll, with little change in staffing levels after the campaign made deep staffing cuts in July.
Most of the travel spending went to three business travel companies: TMFB Management Services and Workman Transportation, which are based in Florida, and Corporate Traveler, which is based in New Jersey. Craig Mateer, who owns TMFB Management, has been a major contributor to DeSantis’ Florida campaigns and also donated to DeSantis’ presidential campaign.
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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/travel-costs-staff-ads-added-ron-desantis-dropped-rcna136501
| 2024-01-31T23:51:37Z
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Chicago becomes latest US city to call for cease-fire in Israel-Hamas war
CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago’s City Council narrowly approved a resolution Wednesday calling for a permanent cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas, with Mayor Brandon Johnson casting the tiebreaking vote.
The symbolic declaration in the nation’s third-largest city follows weeks of rowdy public meetings with disruptions from demonstrators, including on Wednesday when things became so boisterous the first-term mayor had to temporarily clear the council chambers. The resolution, approved 24-23, includes a call for humanitarian aid and the the release of all hostages. Supporters in the chambers included the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Chicago is latest U.S. city to approve such a non-binding resolution, following Atlanta, Detroit and San Francisco in recent months.
“Do I believe that the words that we speak today, how we vote today influences directly international policy? I don’t. I don’t have those illusions,” said Alderman Daniel La Spata, one of the resolution’s sponsors. “But we vote with hope. We vote with solidarity. We vote to help people feel heard in a world of silence.”
The ordinance remained largely unchanged over the past few months despite urging from the council’s sole Jewish member, Alderwoman Debra Silverstein, who sought more support of Israel and criticism of Hamas.
“We all want an end to the bloodshed and an end to the war. But it is vital to understand what caused the conflict, and we should pass a resolution that addresses the issue responsibly,” she said during the meeting. “We should not pass a resolution unless it makes clear that Hamas cannot and should not attack again.”
The war began with Hamas attacking Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Since then, Israeli strikes have killed more than 26,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly 2 million others from their homes.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.kob.com/news/us-and-world-news/chicago-becomes-latest-us-city-to-call-for-cease-fire-in-israel-hamas-war/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:37Z
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In a surprise move, an Iran-linked militia in Iraq that the Pentagon said was likely responsible for a lethal drone attack on a US base in Jordan over the weekend announced on Tuesday that it was suspending military operations in Iraq under pressure from the Iraqi government and from Iran. The announcement came shortly after President Biden said that he had decided how to respond to the attack in Jordan on Sunday, though he did not say what that response would be.
His comment raised fears in Iraq about a possibly retaliatory US attack on its territory.
The militia, Kata'ib Hezbollah, or Brigades of the Party of God, is the largest and most established of the Iran-linked groups operating in Iraq. It has spearheaded a majority of the some 160 attacks on US military installations in Iraq and Syria that have occurred since Israel began its ground operations in Gaza.
The US military has about 2,500 troops in Iraq training the Iraqi army and about 900 in Syria, supporting the Kurdish Syrian Defense forces in their fight against the Islamic State.
Kata'ib Hezbollah is part of what is known as the Axis of Resistance, a network of Iran-backed groups operating in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and occasionally farther afield. The other two Iraqi groups that are believed to have been involved in strikes US targets - Harakat al Nujaba and Sayyid Shuhada - have not announced they will halt attacks.
The leader of Kata'ib Hezbollah, Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi, said in a statement: "We announce the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces - in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi government." It was the first time that the militia had publicly declared a suspension of operations. The statement made clear that Iran had pressured the group to stop the attacks on US troops. The group made a point of suggesting that it chooses its own targets and timing, rather than following Iran's orders. "Our brothers in the Axis, especially in the Islamic Republic of Iran, they do not know how we conduct our Jihad, and they often object to the escalation against the occupation forces in Iraq and Syria," the statement said.
Asked about Kata'ib Hezbollah's announcement, a US defence department spokesman, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, said at a Pentagon briefing: "I don't have a specific comment to provide other than actions speak louder than words."
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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/iranlinked-militia-halts-military-operations-in-iraq-under-pressure-from-iran-iraq/articleshow/107305445.cms
| 2024-01-31T23:51:37Z
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AFCON: South Africa Defeat Morocco To Book Quarter-final Place
Featured, Latest News, South Africa, Southern Africa, Sports News Wednesday, January 31st, 2024(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Evidence Makgopa and Teboho Mokoena scored second-half goals as South Africa shocked Morocco with a 2-0 victory to dump the World Cup semi-finalists out of the Africa Cup of Nations ( AFCON) at the last-16 stage in San Pedro on Tuesday.
Morocco, who had Sofyan Amrabat sent off late on, were among the favourites at the tournament in the Ivory Coast, but their continental curse continued and they remain without a Cup of Nations title since 1976, this time undone in the muggy heat of the Laurent Pokou Stadium.
South Africa led in the 57th minute when midfielder Themba Zwane, so often the creative fulcrum of the side, slipped a pass through to tall striker Makgopa and he calmly slid the ball past goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, before Mokoena fired in a superb late free kick.
Morocco had a chance to level with the score at 1-0 when they were awarded a penalty, but Achraf Hakimi hit the crossbar.
South Africa will play Cape Verde in the quarter-finals in Yamoussoukro on Saturday.
South Africa, winners in 1996, have endured much hardship in continental competition over the last few decades and have not gone past the quarter-finals since 2000, but put in a stoic defensive display to go with flashes of attacking quality to seal a famous win.
Morocco looked to suffer in the oppressive heat and were a far cry from the entertaining side that delighted at the World Cup in Qatar, missing on this occasion the attacking talents of injured playmaker Hakim Ziyech.
They could not break their opponents down, and even when gifted a clear penalty following a handball by defender Mothobi Mvala, Hakimi summed up their night by hitting the frame of the goal.
The first half was devoid of many clear-cut chances as South Africa took a cautious approach and played a containment game, keeping their structure and not throwing bodies into attack.
Mokoena forced a good save from Bounou with a shot from 30-yards, while Percy Tau headed wide from a corner.
But the best opportunity of the opening 45 minutes fell to Moroccan winger Amine Adli just before halftime. He delayed his shot from 10 yards and that allowed the covering defence to get across and close him down.
Once Makgopa had given South Africa the lead, they went even further into their shell, relying on the counter-attack.
Their second goal was a sublime free kick from dead-ball specialist Mokoena in the fifth minute of stoppage time as he smashed the ball into the back of the net after Amrabat had been red carded for a professional foul.( Reuters/ NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
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https://www.africanexaminer.com/afcon-south-africa-defeat-morocco-to-book-quarter-final-place/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:37Z
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Kevin Williams recently received a letter from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services saying he must pay back thousands of dollars of unemployment payments he received during the pandemic.
He received a Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) overpayment fraud letter on Jan. 16 saying he owes $22,983.
“I was panicked,” the Columbus resident said when he opened the letter. “All of a sudden I have this weird bill that comes from nowhere. And I have to pay this. I don’t have that money.”
The letter, obtained by the Capital Journal, says his PUA application is fraudulent. PUA was made for people who don’t qualify for traditional unemployment benefits and the federal PUA program ended September 2021.
“The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has determined that you were overpaid benefits to which you are not entitled because you committed fraudulent misrepresentation,” the letter said. “The individual was issued a fact-finding questionnaire through their online PUA account so this agency could verify their identity, but the individual did not complete and return the questionnaire.”
Williams says he doesn’t remember receiving the questionnaire. And it appears as though he’s not alone. A recent Reddit thread has more than 100 comments of people sharing similar stories about receiving overpayment fraud letters.
“These letters are terrifying,” Williams said.
ODJFS paid $7.6 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits and received 2.7 million claims for PUA, focusing on the claims that were “most likely to be legitimate,” ODJFS Public Information Officer Tom Betti said in an email.
However, the department later identified millions of those dollars that they say were dispersed as fraud.
“Recently, we began adjudicating the remaining 180,000 claims initially flagged as having a high likelihood of fraud,” Betti said in an email. “While most of these are likely fraud, some may be legitimate claimants. We apologize for any inconvenience and encourage legitimate claimants to work through the appeal process and submit the required documents.”
He said ODJFS recently sent letters to PUA recipients that “lacked the proper identification documents in their accounts and were flagged as fraud.”
ODJFS identified $6.9 billion in fraud and non-fraud overpayment — including $4.8 billion in non-fraud PUA overpayments and $1 billion in fraudulent PUA overpayments, as of Sept. 30, according to the department.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act tacks on a penalty of at least 15% to “benefit amounts fraudulently obtained,” according to the letter. That penalty adds $2,763 to the total amount Williams owes.
“A variety of new safeguards are in place to prevent fraudulent unemployment claims and ODJFS continues to work with law enforcement to help facilitate the recovery of funds and hold scammers accountable under the law,” Betti said in an email.
Pandemic unemployment
Williams was self-employed and working as a rideshare driver when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, so he signed up and was initially approved for PUA. He received regular payments from March 21, 2020, to September 19, 2020.
He says he got a letter from ODJFS in 2021 — months after he stopped collecting money — saying the department had miscalculated his income and had been overpaying him. So he said he submitted the overpayment waiver but never heard back until now.
“This must be an overpayment waiver that I filed years ago they’re finally just now getting to,” he remembers thinking when he got the Jan. 16 letter. “Instead, it moves to notices that they found instances of fraud on my account.”
ODJFS says people can appeal these fraud claims through the online portal, but Williams said he hasn’t tried that yet. Instead, he talked to a lawyer who said they can fight this for him, but Williams realizes not everyone is in a position where they can do that.
“I am thankful that I’m in a position to be able to pay to do that,” he said. “But I know a lot of people aren’t.”
Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.
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https://www.clevescene.com/news/odjfs-issues-overpayment-fraud-letters-to-some-pandemic-unemployment-assistance-recipients-43619920
| 2024-01-31T23:51:38Z
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(Bloomberg) -- The UK plans to reduce trade friction on goods flowing between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a move which fell short of an overhaul of Brexit rules but is still expected to persuade the Democratic Unionist Party to end its boycott of the region’s devolved government.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government said it will replace the so-called “green lane" for goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland — part of the effective trade border in the Irish Sea created by the post-Brexit settlement agreed with the European Union — with a new “UK internal market system" that will not require checks. It also plans legislation to guarantee “unfettered access" for Northern Irish goods to the UK internal market.
The measures are part of a package, which includes a £3.3 billion ($4.2 billion) funding boost, agreed with the DUP to end its boycott of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government. Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson has been talking up the concessions and promised to end the protest once the UK published the plan.
However, in a sign of the limited scope and impact of the proposed changes, the UK government said they didn’t need any sign-off from the EU and the bloc made no public objection or protest. “I do not anticipate any particular difficulties in respect of the EU side," Ireland’s deputy premier Micheal Martin told reporters during a visit to Belfast on Wednesday.
“This is a lot more about presentation than substantive change, on a first reading," said Simon Usherwood, professor of politics and international studies at the Open University, adding that he’s surprised the DUP is accepting the plan because it doesn’t alter the basics of the post-Brexit settlement. “But if it gets them out of the hole they dug themselves into, and - more importantly - it restores power-sharing, then that has to be a positive."
Northern Ireland was one of the trickiest issues in divorce talks between Britain and the EU, which culminated in the region retaining a hybrid status inside the EU’s single market for goods and having to impose customs checks on some goods entering the province from the rest of the UK.
Key features of the Brexit settlement are unaffected by the new plan, which will maintain checks on goods intended for Ireland in the EU’s single market.
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The challenge for the DUP’s Donaldson is to take his party with him over the coming days when the devolved assembly at Stormont is expected to be re-formed. In a sign that he still has work to do, DUP MPs lined up on Wednesday to criticize the proposals when presented to Parliament by the UK’s Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.
Sammy Wilson, who has opposed any compromise on the Brexit rules, said the ongoing possibility of regulatory divergence between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK was the result of a “spineless, weak-kneed Brexit-betraying government refusing to take on the EU and its interference in Northern Ireland."
“When the Northern Ireland assembly sits, ministers and assembly members will be expected by law to adhere to and implement laws which are made in Brussels, which they had no say over and no ability to amend, and no ability to stop," he said.
Another DUP MP, Carla Lockhart, said “there remains work to do," while Paul Girvan said “we very much feel like we’re being bounced on a timetable."
The opposition to Donaldson’s deal is not expected to prevent the restoration of power-sharing, after the DUP leader said the party’s senior leadership agreed to end the boycott during five hours of talks that ended with a breakthrough in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The risk for Donaldson is likely to be more in the long-term, if he can’t keep the bulk of his party onside once the assembly and Northern Ireland executive is up and running, and his deal with the UK is tested.
The DUP withdrew from the power-sharing government in February 2022, arguing Northern Ireland’s hybrid status in the Brexit deal signed by ex-premier Boris Johnson had undermined its place in the UK. Heaton-Harris called on the party to end the boycott because of the new proposals.
“With this package it’s now time for elected representatives in Northern Ireland to come together to end the two years of impasse," Heaton-Harris said in Parliament. “I trust we will have the conditions to move onward to see ministers back in post in Stormont swiftly."
The UK House of Commons will debate and vote on the proposals on Thursday, Sunak’s spokesman Max Blain told reporters in London. Labour’s spokesman Hilary Benn confirmed his party would back the government at the vote.
“Stability is everything, especially to the people of Northern Ireland after all they have been through," Benn said.
Ending the political impasse would be a significant moment in the history of Northern Ireland, which will get its first nationalist First Minister in Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill.
(Updates with more details from first paragraph.)
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https://www.livemint.com/news/uk-plans-to-ease-brexit-trade-flows-to-restore-northern-ireland-government/amp-11706726244722.html
| 2024-01-31T23:51:39Z
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U.S. sportsbooks won’t take bets on possible Taylor Swift appearance at the Super Bowl
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Fans have been wondering for days whether Taylor Swift will make it to the Super Bowl next week to cheer on boyfriend Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs and, if so, how many times she’ll show up on TV during the game. They can speculate all they want, but they won’t be able to bet on it legally in the United States.
Those types of wagers can be made offshore with sportsbooks such as BetUS, which is based in Costa Rica, and potentially in the Canadian province of Ontario. BetMGM public relations manager John Ewing said he was waiting for word from Canadian authorities there if such bets will be OK.
But in the U.S., where betting laws vary from state to state, the general rule is that wagering is limited to what happens on the field. A handful of states allow bets to be placed on the color of Gatorade dumped on the winning coach — red or pink is this year’s plus-260 favorite at FanDuel Sportsbook — but even that type of wager is not allowed in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas, the longtime epicenter of sports betting in the U.S., has some of the strictest rules regarding the kinds of wagers made.
Swift’s romance with Kelce became one of the prominent stories this NFL season and she has attended several Chiefs games, including their victory in the AFC championship game at Baltimore on Sunday, where she joined the team for its on-field celebration and greeted Kelce with a kiss. Since she’s performing in Japan the weekend of the Super Bowl, fans began wondering whether she’ll make it to Las Vegas to watch Kelce and Kansas City face the San Francisco 49ers.
It seems only natural they would be able to put money on it in Vegas.
As a matter of principle, though, Ewing said it makes sense not to allow bets on things apart from the on-field action, such as the length of the national anthem.
“We don’t want any subjectivity in a prop (bet),” Ewing said. “We want it to be either it won or it didn’t win or went over or went under, and that’s the concern for regulators as well. That’s why typically we stick to if it’s in the box score, it can be posted.”
Caesars Sportsbook assistant trading director Adam Pullen’s position is the more bets, the merrier.
“We’ve come a long way, but some stuff like we’re talking about here (about Swift) or betting on elections, there still might be a few years before we get to that point,” Pullen said. “But I like anything that drives action and gets people to bet. But we’re dependent on what the regulators in each particular state has to say.”
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://kstp.com/kstp-news/entertainment/u-s-sportsbooks-wont-take-bets-on-possible-taylor-swift-appearance-at-the-super-bowl/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:39Z
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Dragon's Dogma II
Feb. 1, 2024
Dragon's Dogma 2 New Gameplay Trailer | State of Play 2024
Dragon's Dogma 2 is coming on March 22, 2024 and Capcom has released a breand-new gameplay trailer highlighting all the new action coming to the fantasy RPG sequel.
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https://in.ign.com/dragons-dogma-ii/201430/video/dragons-dogma-2-new-gameplay-trailer-state-of-play-2024
| 2024-01-31T23:51:40Z
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Wall Street fell to its worst loss since September after Big Tech stocks got burned by the downside of high expectations and the Federal Reserve indicated cuts to interest rates likely aren't imminent.
- The S&P 500 fell 79.32 points Tuesday, or 1.6%, to 4,845.65 .
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which hit an all-time high Monday, fell 317.01 points, or 0.8%, to 38,150.30.
- The Nasdaq composite fell 345.89 points, or 2.2%, to 15,164.01.
Alphabet was one of the market's heaviest weights, the
AP reports. It fell 7.4% after analysts pointed to some concerning trends in how much Google's parent company earning from advertising. Microsoft fell 3.7% despite delivering stronger profit and revenue than expected.
Tesla, another member of the group of stocks nicknamed the "Magnificent Seven," fell 2.2%. A judge in Delaware ruled a day earlier that its CEO, Elon Musk, is not entitled to the landmark compensation package awarded him by Tesla that's potentially worth more than $55 billion. The Magnificent Seven were responsible for the majority of the S&P 500's return last year, and three more members are scheduled to report their latest quarter results on Thursday: Amazon, Apple, and Meta Platforms. Expectations are high for them, too. Advanced Micro Devices is not a member of the Magnificent Seven, but it benefits from many of the same trends. It fell 2.5% even though it matched analysts' expectations for profit in the latest quarter and edged past them for revenue.
The Fed on Wednesday left its main interest rate steady at its highest level since 2001. Perhaps disappointingly for investors, it also made clear that it "does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward" its goal of 2%. "We're not declaring victory at all," Fed Chair Jerome Powell said. Powell acknowledged the difficult position the Fed is in, with dangers arising from both acting too quickly and too late, even though "overall it's a good picture" for the economy at the moment. Cutting rates too soon could reignite inflationary pressures, while acting too late would mean unnecessary pain for the economy and job market.
(More
stock market stories.)
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https://www.newser.com/story/345807/wall-street-just-had-its-worst-day-since-september.html
| 2024-01-31T23:51:41Z
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St. Al’s Anthony McCloud doubles up as The Post’s Athlete of the Week
Published 2:07 pm Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Anthony McCloud has had his share of double-doubles this basketball season, and added another to his resumé in The Vicksburg Post’s Athlete of the Week contest.
McCloud, a forward with St. Aloysius’ boys’ basketball team, won the award for the second time in a landslide victory.
McCloud received 2,127 of the 3,445 votes cast in an online poll of The Post’s readers. Porter’s Chapel Academy basketball player Sophie Masterson was second, with 676 votes, and Warren Central bowler James McKenna received 572 to finish third. Vicksburg High basketball player Kierra James placed fourth with 127 votes.
McCloud led the Flashes to three victories last week that helped secure their spot in the upcoming MAIS Class 5A South State tournament.
McCloud had 24 points and 10 rebounds in a 68-41 road win against the Jackson Victors on Jan. 23; scored 16 points in a 55-49 win over Cathedral on Jan. 25; and then scored 20 points in a 54-50 victory vs. Providence Classical on Jan. 26.
McCloud was also the Athlete of the Week for Dec. 10-15, when he had three double-digit scoring games.
Congratulations to Anthony and the other nominees, and thank you to our readers for voting.
The nominees for the Athlete of the Week award are announced each Sunday, and voting is open until midnight Tuesday. Links to the poll will be posted on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X pages, as well as vicksburgpost.com.
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https://www.vicksburgpost.com/2024/01/31/st-als-anthony-mccloud-doubles-up-as-the-posts-athlete-of-the-week/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:41Z
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| 2024-01-31T23:51:40Z
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NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with constitutional scholar Philip Bobbitt about the effort from House Republicans to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Copyright 2024 NPR
NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with constitutional scholar Philip Bobbitt about the effort from House Republicans to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.mtpr.org/2024-01-31/constitutional-scholar-says-gop-charges-against-mayorkas-dont-meet-impeachment-bar
| 2024-01-31T23:51:41Z
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NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with constitutional scholar Philip Bobbitt about the effort from House Republicans to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Copyright 2024 NPR
NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with constitutional scholar Philip Bobbitt about the effort from House Republicans to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kvpr.org/2024-01-31/constitutional-scholar-says-gop-charges-against-mayorkas-dont-meet-impeachment-bar
| 2024-01-31T23:51:41Z
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Broadway star Hinton Battle, who played the original Scarecrow at the 1978 "The Wiz", has died at 67. He was a three-time Tony Award winner.
Copyright 2024 NPR
Broadway star Hinton Battle, who played the original Scarecrow at the 1978 "The Wiz", has died at 67. He was a three-time Tony Award winner.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kalw.org/2024-01-31/broadway-legend-hinton-battle-who-originally-played-scarecrow-in-the-wiz-has-died
| 2024-01-31T23:51:41Z
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Earthquakes raise alert for Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano. But any eruption is unlikely to threaten homes
HONOLULU (AP) — A surge of earthquakes at Kilauea’s summit prompted scientists to raise the alert level for the Hawaiian volcano on Wednesday. But any eruption is unlikely to threaten homes.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said it detected 25 to 30 small earthquakes per hour since 3 a.m. at the southern part of the volcano’s caldera. This spot is inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and far from homes.
Magnitudes ranged from less than 1 to 3.4. Several quakes were large enough to be felt by observatory staff in the field.
The observatory raised its alert level to “watch,” signifying that Kilauea was showing heightened or escalating unrest. This level indicates there is an increased chance the volcano will erupt, though it is unclear when.
Previously, the designator for Kilauea was “advisory,” meaning the volcano was showing signs of elevated unrest above a known background level.
Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. It last erupted in September, spewing lava inside the summit caldera for nearly a week. It also erupted in June.
In 2018, lava burst out of cracks on Kilauea’s eastern flank in its lower East Rift Zone and destroyed more than 700 homes.
The observatory said there has been no unusual activity in the middle and lower sections of the East Rift Zone.
Kilauea’s much larger neighbor, Mauna Loa, erupted in 2022 for the first time in four decades.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.kob.com/news/us-and-world-news/earthquakes-raise-alert-for-hawaiis-kilauea-volcano-but-any-eruption-is-unlikely-to-threaten-homes/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:43Z
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WASHINGTON: US senators on Wednesday grilled the biggest social media companies, saying they had failed to do enough to protect children from sexual predators on their platforms, and said Congress must quickly pass legislation. The hearing marks the latest effort by lawmakers to address parents' concerns that tech firms put profits over making sure their platforms do not harm children.
"Mr. Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us, I know you don't mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands," said Senator Lindsey Graham, referring to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg testified along with X CEO Linda Yaccarino, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and Discord CEO Jason Citron.
Senator Dick Durbin, the judiciary committee's Democratic chairman, cited statistics that showed financial "sextortion", in which a predator tricks a minor into sending explicit photos and videos, had skyrocketed last year. "This disturbing growth in child sexual exploitation is driven by one thing: changes in technology," he said.
X's Yaccarino said the company supported the STOP CSAM Act, legislation introduced by Durbin that seeks to hold tech companies accountable for child sexual abuse material and would allow victims to sue tech platforms. The bill is one of several aimed at addressing child safety. None have become law.
Chew said TikTok would spend over $2 billion on safety efforts, but declined to say how the figure compared to the company's revenue. Zuckerberg reiterated that the company had no plans to move forward with a previous idea to create a kids version of Instagram.
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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/us-senators-question-meta-tiktok-x-ceos-on-child-sexual-exploitation/articleshow/107305870.cms
| 2024-01-31T23:51:44Z
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WASHINGTON — The House plans to vote Wednesday night to pass a $78 billion tax package that includes an expansion of the child tax credit, sending it to the Senate, where the path ahead is uncertain.
The Republican-led chamber will aim to pass the bipartisan measure through a fast-track process that requires a two-thirds majority.
The bill has broad bipartisan support but does face objections from a few corners including liberal Democrats who opposed the business tax breaks, right-wing Republicans who took issue with the child tax credit policy and New York GOP members who complained that it didn't expand the $10,000 cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes.
If it passes, the legislation would go to the Democratic-led Senate, where it will need 60 votes to pass. It's not clear that the votes are there.
Among the skeptics in the Senate is Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who serves on the Finance Committee and directly Wednesday that he has concerns about the bill because it would make President Joe Biden "look good" in an election year.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., declined to say Wednesday when the tax bill will come to a vote and whether it'll be amended.
"I support the tax bill," Schumer told reporters. "I’m working with Sen. Wyden to figure out the best way forward."
The legislation would expand refundable child tax credits, aiming to provide relief to struggling families, particularly parents with multiple children. It would incrementally lift the $1,600 refundable cap on the credit and also adjust it for inflation. It would also resurrect some expired portions of the 2017 Republican tax cuts for businesses — including research and experimental expensing and small-business expensing.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office said the Kentucky Republican is deferring to Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the ranking member on the Finance Committee, to lead the Senate GOP response.
Crapo said he wants the bill to go through committee, where it can be revised, and to have "a floor process where all the members can file their amendments.” One change he said he wants is to eliminate the provision that allows taxpayers to use a prior year's income if it allows them to access a larger child tax credit.
"I think we need to fix the look-back requirement on the child tax credit so that we don't diminish the work requirement. That's one of them," he said. "On the child tax credit, they're allowing income earned in one year to be used in another year."
"But I'm not discussing everything else," he said. "We'll see."
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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-vote-expanded-child-tax-credit-bill-rcna136545
| 2024-01-31T23:51:43Z
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost just couldn’t resist jumping onboard a new way to kill people – or the opportunity to be in front of television cameras.
Yost, Ohio’s two-term Republican attorney general, on Tuesday announced his support for legislation to allow nitrogen hypoxia to be used in Ohio executions. The bill is sponsored by state Reps. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, and Phil Plummer, R-Dayton.
Yost said Ohio has “broke faith” with crime victims and jurors by not carrying out death sentences for the last five years while capital punishment remains law. Without mentioning Gov. Mike DeWine by name, Yost said not following the law is “an abdication of the sovereignty of the state of Ohio.”
The proposal, which has 13 cosponsors, would allow condemned inmates to choose between execution by lethal drugs or nitrogen hypoxia. However, nitrogen hypoxia would be used if lethal injections drugs are unavailable, which has been the case for the past five years.
Yost, who desperately wants to be Ohio’s next governor, is woefully misguided in pushing Ohio to follow suit with Alabama by adopting nitrogen hypoxia for capital punishment.
His push at this point is untimely, unseemly, and unnecessary. It is an exercise in personal and political vanity at a time when Ohioans are less interested in executions. Bipartisan legislation to end capital punishment is pending before the General Assembly.
Alabama executed Kenneth Eugene Smith on Jan. 27, using nitrogen gas for the first time in U.S. history. Officials called it a “textbook” execution but media eyewitnesses described a quite different scene as Smith shook violently and thrashed on the gurney after the gas began flowing. He gasped for breath for several minutes and appeared to be dry heaving into the mask covering his face.
The execution of Dennis McGuire on Jan. 16, 2014, was one of the last executions I witnessed as a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch. Like the execution of Smith, McGuire’s death by lethal injection was a nightmare. He gasped, choked, struggled and writhed on the execution table for 12 minutes before, mercifully, it was over. It was by far the most gruesome of 21 executions I witnessed.
In the process used on Smith, nitrogen — and no oxygen — is pumped into an airtight mask worn by the condemned. The result is suffocation. It is so dangerous that a spiritual adviser in the execution chamber had to sign a waiver of liability in case the gas leaked.
Ohio hasn’t had an execution since 2018. Gov. DeWine, also a Republican, has repeatedly delayed scheduled executions, citing the lack of availability of lethal injection drugs. It is certain there will be no executions here until the end of his term in 2026.
So why is Yost weighing in at this point?
He tipped his hand last year when he used the Capital Crimes Report issued annually by the attorney general as a bully pulpit to express his desire to resume executions which he said have been stalled far too long. He waved the report at Tuesday’s press conference.
Now he’s in a head-to-head battle with Lt. Gov. Jon Husted as prime competitors for governor in two years. Husted has been rolling out press releases on a variety of topics. The common wisdom about the attorney general is the most dangerous place to be is between Yost and a television camera.
I have known Dave Yost, who for a while went by Davyd Yost, for more than 30 years. We were competitors at Columbus City Hall when I worked for the Columbus Dispatch and he reported for the Columbus Citizen-Journal, now defunct.
He was a good journalist, a fair to middling musician, and a fun guy to be around.
But then he got a law license, became a prosecutor, got MAGA-tized, and took a hard turn to the right.
He professes to be a Christian and opposes abortion.
This is where I cannot understand his thinking. If all life is sacred, as abortion opponents contend – and I agree – how can you favor taking the life of someone through execution? Either all life is sacred or it is not. There is no gray area.
Both Yost and Stewart danced around the sanctity of life question at the Statehouse press conference, seeking to contrast an “innocent life and a guilty life.”
Life is life. Imago dei. The image of Christ.
It would be wise (albeit unlikely) for Yost to heed the words of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackman, a Republican appointed by Richard Nixon.
In a famous dissent in a 1994 murder case before the Supreme Court, Blackman wrote:
“From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. I feel…obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed. It is virtually self-evident to me now that no combination of procedural rules or substantive regulations ever can save the death penalty from its inherent constitutional deficiencies.”
It’s time to end, not extend the use of capital punishment in Ohio.
Alan Johnson is a former journalist who spent 44 years with Ohio newspapers, including 33 years at the Columbus Dispatch where he reported on capital punishment and personally witnessed 21 executions. He is the author of a book, "Death and Forgiveness, My Capital Punishment Witness."
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https://www.clevescene.com/news/op-ed-ohio-attorney-generals-push-to-revive-the-death-penalty-is-untimely-unseemly-and-unnecessary-43620171
| 2024-01-31T23:51:44Z
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US: Umbrella group Islamic Resistance in Iraq responsible for strike that killed 3 troops in Jordan
US: Umbrella group Islamic Resistance in Iraq responsible for strike that killed 3 troops in Jordan
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has attributed the drone attack that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes the militant group Kataib Hezbollah.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday the U.S. believes the attack was planned, resourced and facilitated by the group.
The Sunday drone attack on a military base in Jordan killed the three troops and injured at least 40 others. Kirby says President Joe Biden will continue to weigh response options to the attack but “the first thing you see won’t be the last thing."
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Iran threatened Wednesday to “decisively respond" to any U.S. attack on the Islamic Republic following President Joe Biden's linking of Tehran to the killing of three U.S. soldiers at a military base in Jordan.
The U.S. has signaled it is preparing for retaliatory strikes in the Mideast in the wake of the Sunday drone attack that also wounded at least 40 troops at Tower 22, a secretive base in northeastern Jordan that's been crucial to the American presence in neighboring Syria.
Any additional American strikes could further inflame a region already roiled by Israel's ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The war began with Hamas attacking Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage. Since then, Israel has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly 2 million others from their homes, arousing anger throughout the Muslim world.
Violence has erupted across the Mideast, with Iran striking targets in Iraq, Pakistan and Syria, and the U.S. carrying out airstrikes targeting Yemen's Houthi rebels over their attacks shipping in the Red Sea. Some observers fear a new round of strikes targeting Iran could tip the region into a wider war.
A U.S. Navy destroyer in the waterway shot down an anti-ship cruise missile launched by the Houthis late Tuesday, the latest attack targeting American forces patrolling the key maritime trade route, officials said. The U.S. later launched a new round of airstrikes targeting the Houthis.
The Iranian warnings first came from Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in New York. He gave a briefing to Iranian journalists late Tuesday, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
“The Islamic Republic would decisively respond to any attack on the county, its interests and nationals under any pretexts," IRNA quoted Iravani as saying. He described any possible Iranian retaliation as a “strong response," without elaborating.
The Iranian mission to the U.N. did not respond to requests for comment or elaboration Wednesday on Iravani's remarks.
Iravani also denied that Iran and the U.S. had exchanged any messages over the last few days, either through intermediaries or directly. The pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera, which is based in and funded by Qatar, reported earlier that such communication had taken place. Qatar often serves as an intermediary between Washington and Tehran.
“Such messages have not been exchanged," Iravani said.
But Iran's government has taken note of the U.S. threats of retaliation for the attack on the base in Jordan.
“Sometime, our enemies raise the threat, and nowadays we hear some threats in between words by American officials," Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Hossein Salami, who answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said at an event Wednesday. "We tell them that you have experienced us, and we know each other. We do not leave any threat without an answer."
“We are not after war, but we have no fear of war," he added, according to IRNA.
On Saturday, a general in charge of Iran's air defenses described them as being at their “highest defensive readiness." That raises concerns for commercial aviation traveling through and over Iran as well. After a U.S. drone strike killed a top general in 2020, Iranian air defenses mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 people on board.
Meanwhile, attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels continue in the Red Sea, most recently targeting a U.S. warship. The missile launched Tuesday night targeted the USS Gravely, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, the U.S. military’s Central Command said in a statement. No injuries or damage were reported.
A Houthi military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement Wednesday morning, calling it “a victory for the oppression of the Palestinian people and a response to the American-British aggression against our country."
Saree claimed the Houthis fired “several" missiles, something not acknowledged by the U.S. Navy. Houthi claims have been exaggerated in the past, and their missiles sometimes crash on land and fail to reach their targets.
The Houthis claimed without evidence on Monday to have targeted the USS Lewis B. Puller, a floating landing base used by the Navy SEALs and others. The U.S. said there had been no attack.
On Wednesday, a U.S. military jet struck a surface-to-air missile that was about to launch from Houthi-controlled Yemen, a U.S. official said. The missile was deemed an immediate threat and destroyed. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details ahead of a public announcement.
Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea over Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza. But they have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for global trade between Asia, the Mideast and Europe.
The Houthis hit a commercial vessel with a missile on Friday, sparking a fire that burned for hours.
The U.S. and the United Kingdom have launched multiple rounds of airstrikes targeting the Houthis as allied warships patrol the waterways affected by the attacks. The European Union also plans to launch a naval mission in the Red Sea within three weeks to help defend cargo ships against the Houthi attacks, the bloc’s top diplomat said Wednesday.
___
Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.
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https://www.livemint.com/news/us-umbrella-group-islamic-resistance-in-iraq-responsible-for-strike-that-killed-3-troops-in-jordan-11706727096497.html
| 2024-01-31T23:51:45Z
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BREAKING: Supreme Court Affirms Fintiri’s Election As Adamawa Gov
Featured, Latest News, News Across Nigeria Wednesday, January 31st, 2024(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri as Governor of Adamawa State.
Justice John Okoro who prepared and read the lead judgement on Wednesday dismissed the appeal by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Aisha Dahiru.
While dismissing her appeal for lacking in merit, the five-member panel led by Justice John Okoro held that the act of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Ari, was an act of irresponsibility and criminality.
Justice Okoro further held that it is the returning officer who must announce results, as this is to avoid chaos and anarchy.
He stated that the Electoral Act gives the responsibility of who to declare results, and this power exclusively rests on the returning officer.
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https://www.africanexaminer.com/breaking-supreme-court-affirms-fintiris-election-as-adamawa-gov/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:44Z
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East Bethel man pleads guilty to charge in case involving trafficking human remains
Federal court records show a Minnesota man charged for having a role in a nationwide network of people who bought and sold human remains from Harvard Medical School and an Arkansas mortuary has pleaded guilty to one of the charges filed against him.
According to court documents, Mattew Lampi of East Bethel entered a guilty plea on Tuesday to one count of Aiding and Abetting Interstate Transport of Stolen Goods. In exchange, the agreement calls for prosecutors to file for dismissal of the remaining charge of conspiracy. However, the agreement states federal prosecutors may not bring any other criminal charges against Lampi except for any potential tax charges.
The maximum sentence for the stolen goods transport charge is 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and supervised release for three years.
As previously reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, Lampi was one of six people to be indicted by federal prosecutors. The others charged are:
- Cedric Lodge of Goffstown, New Hampshire
- Katrina Maclean of Salem, Massachusetts
- Joshua Taylor of West Lawn, Pennsylvania
- Denise Lodge of Goffstown, New Hampshire
- Jeremy Pauley of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania
Prosecutors allege Cedric Lodge managed the morgue for the Harvard Medical School, which procured organs and other parts of cadavers for medical research. He then reportedly stole organs and other body parts before their scheduled cremations and sold the remains, along with his wife, Denise Lodge. The transactions were arranged online through social media and over phone calls.
Prosecutors say the buyers included Katrina Maclean, Joshua Taylor and others. According to a news release, Lodge sometimes allowed Maclean and Taylor to visit the morgue and look at the corpses they were interested in buying.
Maclean and Taylor then resold those stolen remains to others, including Jeremy Pauley, according to federal officials. Additionally, Pauley would buy stolen human remains from Candace Chapman Scott, who allegedly stole those remains from a mortuary and crematorium she worked at in Arkansas. Prosecutors note separate charges have already been filed against Scott in Arkansas.
The indictment says Pauley allegedly sold the stolen remains to others, including Lampi. Lampi and Pauley reportedly exchanged over $100,000 for the purchases over several years.
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https://kstp.com/kstp-news/local-news/east-bethel-man-pleads-guilty-to-charge-in-case-involving-trafficking-human-remains/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:45Z
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Sony Announces Next State of Play, Will Focus on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
A deeper dive into one of the most anticipated PS5 games of 2024.
Sony wasted no time telling fans when the next State of Play is as the company is set to host another digital event presentation focusing entirely on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
At the end of the January 2024 State of Play presentation, Sony revealed that on February 6, it will hold a presentation dedicated to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. This is not the first time Sony has held a State of Play dedicated entirely to just one game, as the studio has held similar presentations for PlayStation exclusives, including Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us Part II, and Horizon: Forbidden West.
This will likely be the last deep dive look at Final Fantasy VII Rebirth before any reviews are published and before it releases to the public on February 29. Rebirth is part two of a planned trilogy remaking Square Enix's influential 1997 JRPG Final Fantasy VII.
Picking up after the events of Final Fantasy VII Remake, Rebirth follows Cloud and his friends as they leave Midgar and venture off into the wider world. Locations such as the Mythril Mine and Kalm are confirmed to be in Rebirth while party memebers Vincent and Cait Sith are confirmed to make their debut.
In our first hands-on preview of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, my colleague Bo Moore said: "Story-wise, Rebirth again feels very familiar, and yet also different. This is due in part to the tremendous difference in scale and presentation – here, like with Remake, areas that were previously sparse or bare are expanded out into lush zones to explore. But there are also little changes that are mostly inconsequential, but they still play out in different ways than fans of the original FF7 are used to."
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
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https://in.ign.com/final-fantasy-vii-remake-part-2/201425/news/sony-announces-next-state-of-play-will-focus-on-final-fantasy-vii-rebirth
| 2024-01-31T23:51:46Z
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Vicksburg National Military Park conducting prescribed burns this week
Published 2:36 pm Wednesday, January 31, 2024
The National Park Service will conduct prescribed fires to manage vegetation in select areas of the Vicksburg National Military Park this week.
The fires were scheduled to begin Wednesday, Jan. 31, and continue through Friday, Feb. 2, dependent upon favorable weather conditions.
Areas for prescribed fires will include large grassy areas in the South Loop, near the Illinois Memorial and Shirley House; the western slope of Fort Hill; along Graveyard Road; and at Thayer’s Approach. The area of prescribed burns will include approximately 133 acres.
National Park Service fire crews from the Mississippi River Fire Management Zone based in Tupelo and Vicksburg National Military Park staff will help conduct the burns.
Prescribed fires allow fire managers to conduct a safe burn under optimal conditions, with sufficient resources available to meet specific objectives for the management of battlefield resources.
The objectives are to maintain the conditions of the battlefield as experienced by the soldiers who fought here; perpetuate the open space character of the landscape; maintain wildlife habitat, control invasive exotic species; reduce shrub and woody species components and reduce fuels in wooded areas to reduce fire hazard.
No prolonged road closures are anticipated, although smoke from the fires might reduce visibility to a level that would require a temporary closure of some areas to ensure public and firefighter safety.
On the days of the burns, runners and walkers are encouraged to use alternate routes due to the potential for smoke.
Up-to-date information on closures and fire activity will be posted on the park’s social media sites.
The timing of the prescribed fires is dependent on conditions within required weather parameters such as wind, temperature and relative humidity.
The prescribed fires will be conducted from approximately late morning through the afternoon, followed by patrol and monitoring to ensure the fire is completely out.
A combination of hoses, mowed areas and fire engines will be used to create a buffer and fire break to protect monuments and other cultural resources.
National Park Service staff will monitor air quality and smoke impacts as well as visibility on nearby roads.
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https://www.vicksburgpost.com/2024/01/31/vicksburg-national-military-park-conducting-prescribed-burns-this-week/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:47Z
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https://www.kvcrnews.org/2024-01-31/lawmakers-grilled-the-ceos-of-top-social-media-companies-in-a-hearing-today
| 2024-01-31T23:51:47Z
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Drugmaker Biogen is pulling the plug on its controversial Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm, following disappointing sales. It had been expected to be a blockbuster product.
Copyright 2024 NPR
Drugmaker Biogen is pulling the plug on its controversial Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm, following disappointing sales. It had been expected to be a blockbuster product.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.mtpr.org/2024-01-31/expected-to-be-a-big-deal-alzheimers-drug-is-pulled-after-disappointing-sales
| 2024-01-31T23:51:47Z
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Drugmaker Biogen is pulling the plug on its controversial Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm, following disappointing sales. It had been expected to be a blockbuster product.
Copyright 2024 NPR
Drugmaker Biogen is pulling the plug on its controversial Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm, following disappointing sales. It had been expected to be a blockbuster product.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kvpr.org/2024-01-31/expected-to-be-a-big-deal-alzheimers-drug-is-pulled-after-disappointing-sales
| 2024-01-31T23:51:47Z
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Drugmaker Biogen is pulling the plug on its controversial Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm, following disappointing sales. It had been expected to be a blockbuster product.
Copyright 2024 NPR
Drugmaker Biogen is pulling the plug on its controversial Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm, following disappointing sales. It had been expected to be a blockbuster product.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kalw.org/2024-01-31/expected-to-be-a-big-deal-alzheimers-drug-is-pulled-after-disappointing-sales
| 2024-01-31T23:51:48Z
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HYDERABAD: K Sreenivasa Reddy, city police commissioner, transferred 85 police personnel from the high-profile Panjagutta police station at one go and directed them to report at the City Armed Reserve headquarters.
The police station has been embroiled in controversies over the last six months. This is the first ever transfer of this magnitude from a single PS in Telangana.
Among those transferred include SIs, assistant SIs, head constables, and constables.
The blanket shake-up came in the aftermath of serious charges of dereliction of duty on the part of the personnel and several lapses, including allowing Md Raheel Aamir, son of former BRS MLA, Md Shakeel Ahmed, go scot-free in a road accident near Praja Bhavan.
DCP SM Vijay Kumar said the action was initiated in view of recent incidents that occurred in the station limits. "Apart from lapses in policing, inefficiency and indiscipline, not following norms and, most important, no proper supervision by SHO, were glaring," he said.
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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/85-cops-shunted-out-of-hyderabad-thana-at-one-go/articleshow/107306002.cms
| 2024-01-31T23:51:50Z
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First of back-to-back atmospheric rivers pushes into California. Officials urge storm preparations
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The first of two back-to-back atmospheric rivers slowly pushed into California on Wednesday, triggering statewide storm preparations and calls for people to get ready for potential flooding, heavy snow and damaging winds.
Known as a “Pineapple Express” because its long plume of moisture stretched back across the Pacific to near Hawaii, the storm rolled into the far north first and was expected to move down the coast through Thursday. Forecasters expect an even more powerful storm to follow it Sunday.
The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services activated its operations center and positioned personnel and equipment in areas most at risk from the weather.
Brian Ferguson, Cal OES deputy director of crisis communications, characterized the situation as “a significant threat to the safety of Californians” with concerns for impact over 10 to 14 days from the Oregon line to San Diego and from the coast up into the mountains.
“This really is a broad sweep of California that’s going to see threats over the coming week,” Ferguson said.
Much of the first storm’s heaviest rain and mountain snow was expected to arrive late Wednesday and overnight into Thursday.
“The main impact is going to be runoff from heavy rainfall that is probably going to result in flooding of some waterways,” said Robert Hart, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s western region.
Last winter, California was battered by numerous drought-busting atmospheric rivers that unleashed extensive flooding, big waves that hammered shoreline communities and extraordinary snowfall that crushed buildings. More than 20 people died.
The memory was in mind in Capitola, along Monterey Bay, as Joshua Whitby brought in sandbags and considered boarding up the restaurant Zelda’s on the Beach, where he is kitchen manager.
“There’s absolutely always a little bit of PTSD going on with this just because of how much damage we did take last year,” Whitby said.
The second storm in the series has the potential to be much stronger, said Daniel Swain a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Models suggest it could intensify as it approaches the coast of California, a process called bombogenesis in which a spinning low-pressure system rapidly deepens, Swain said in an online briefing Tuesday. The process is popularly called a “cyclone bomb.”
That scenario would create the potential for a major windstorm for the San Francisco Bay Area and other parts of Northern California as well as heavy but brief rain, Swain said.
Southern California, meanwhile, would get less wind but potentially two to three times as much rain as the north because of a deep tap of Pacific moisture extending to the tropics, Swain said.
“This is well south of Hawaii, so not just a Pineapple Express,'” he said.
The new storms come halfway through a winter very different than a year ago.
Despite storms like a Jan. 22 deluge that spawned damaging flash floods in San Diego, the overall trend has been drier. The Sierra Nevada snowpack that normally supplies about 30% of California’s water is only about half of its average to date, state officials said Tuesday.
—-
Nic Coury contributed to this report from Capitola, California.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.kob.com/news/us-and-world-news/first-of-back-to-back-atmospheric-rivers-pushes-into-california-officials-urge-storm-preparations/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:49Z
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WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other right-wing Republicans say they oppose an emerging bipartisan immigration deal because it would allow 5,000 migrants to illegally cross the southern border each day.
“It is illegal to cross our border. But apparently, we’re concocting some sort of deal to allow the president to shut down the border after 5,000 people break the law," Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday. "Why is it 5,000? If you add that up, that’d be a million more illegals into our country every year before we take remedial measures. It’s madness. We shouldn’t be asking what kind of enforcement authority kicks in at 5,000 illegal crossings a day, because that the number should be zero.”
Trump made a similar claim to reporters Tuesday: "That’s a terrible bill. 5,000 a day? That’s a lot. That’s like record-setting stuff."
But that's not actually what the bipartisan deal would do, according to negotiators who are finalizing the details before releasing the full text of the legislation, potentially later this week. Here's what we know:
Migrants would not just be released into the U.S.
Migrants would not be able to just cross the border illegally under the new bill. It would end the practice of "catch and release," in which Border Patrol agents release migrants into the U.S. while they await immigration hearings.
Instead, migrants who attempt to cross the border illegally would be detained immediately with their asylum claim decided while they are in detention. Individuals would be removed immediately within 15 days if they fail their asylum claim interview.
What about migrants who try to cross legally with asylum claims?
If the deal becomes law, migrants who come to the U.S. border at an official port of entry would be diverted to a new "removal authority program" in which they will have 90 days to make their initial asylum interview. Those migrants would not be released into the interior of the U.S. either; they would either be detained or kept under government supervision.
If they fail their initial asylum interview, they would be immediately removed.
But migrants who pass the asylum interview would get to stay in the country for an additional 90 days until their asylum cases are decided. In the meantime, they would receive a work authorization. Once their cases are adjudicated, they would qualify for a path to citizenship.
So where did this 5,000-a-day figure come from?
The bipartisan deal does include provisions that would shut down the border entirely if a certain threshold is hit, but those are border encounters, not crossings. As noted above, no migrant trying to enter the U.S. illegally would be allowed into the country unless they passed an asylum interview or were being held under government supervision.
In addition to those provisions, the Department of Homeland Security could close the border if too many migrants are showing up with asylum claims. After negotiators conferred with the border patrol and officials at the Department of Homeland Security, they crafted the legislation to give DHS the authority to close the border if they reach a seven-day average of 4,000 or more border encounters. A seven-day average of 5,000 or more would mandate a border closure. If the number exceeds 8,500 in a single day, there would also be a mandatory border closure.
What happens if the border is closed?
If the border is shut down, up to 1,400 migrants per day who try to enter at official ports of entry would still qualify to have their asylum claims considered. The rest would be turned away.
Migrants encountered in between ports of entry would be immediately turned away. If the same person tries to cross twice when the border is shut down in between ports of entry, they would be barred from entering the U.S. for one year.
To reopen the border, crossings would need to slow to below 75% of the number that triggered the border closure for seven days. DHS would then have up to two weeks to slowly reopen the border based on capacity.
There is a limit to how long the border can be shut down, to avoid abuse of the authority. For 2024, it is capped at 270 days, but the number is designed to fluctuate year by year as negotiators hope that migrant crossings will slow with the new law in place.
The bill is designed to discourage illegal crossings
Over time, negotiators believe that this legislation, and ending the practice of catch and release, will encourage migrants to seek asylum lawfully at ports of entry rather than attempting to cross illegally in between ports of entry.
The bill will also raise the standard for seeking asylum. And it will provide other resources for the border, including increasing detention capacity for migrants who are held pending asylum claims.
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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/does-new-immigration-bill-5000-illegal-border-crossings-per-day-rcna136656
| 2024-01-31T23:51:50Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has attributed the drone attack that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes the militant group Kataib Hezbollah.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday the U.S. believes the attack was planned, resourced and facilitated by the group.
The Sunday drone attack on a military base in Jordan killed the three troops and injured at least 40 others. Kirby says President Joe Biden will continue to weigh response options to the attack but “the first thing you see won’t be the last thing."
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Iran threatened Wednesday to “decisively respond" to any U.S. attack on the Islamic Republic following President Joe Biden's linking of Tehran to the killing of three U.S. soldiers at a military base in Jordan.
The U.S. has signaled it is preparing for retaliatory strikes in the Mideast in the wake of the Sunday drone attack that also wounded at least 40 troops at Tower 22, a secretive base in northeastern Jordan that's been crucial to the American presence in neighboring Syria.
Any additional American strikes could further inflame a region already roiled by Israel's ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The war began with Hamas attacking Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage. Since then, Israel has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly 2 million others from their homes, arousing anger throughout the Muslim world.
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Violence has erupted across the Mideast, with Iran striking targets in Iraq, Pakistan and Syria, and the U.S. carrying out airstrikes targeting Yemen's Houthi rebels over their attacks shipping in the Red Sea. Some observers fear a new round of strikes targeting Iran could tip the region into a wider war.
A U.S. Navy destroyer in the waterway shot down an anti-ship cruise missile launched by the Houthis late Tuesday, the latest attack targeting American forces patrolling the key maritime trade route, officials said. The U.S. later launched a new round of airstrikes targeting the Houthis.
The Iranian warnings first came from Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in New York. He gave a briefing to Iranian journalists late Tuesday, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
“The Islamic Republic would decisively respond to any attack on the county, its interests and nationals under any pretexts," IRNA quoted Iravani as saying. He described any possible Iranian retaliation as a “strong response," without elaborating.
The Iranian mission to the U.N. did not respond to requests for comment or elaboration Wednesday on Iravani's remarks.
Iravani also denied that Iran and the U.S. had exchanged any messages over the last few days, either through intermediaries or directly. The pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera, which is based in and funded by Qatar, reported earlier that such communication had taken place. Qatar often serves as an intermediary between Washington and Tehran.
“Such messages have not been exchanged," Iravani said.
But Iran's government has taken note of the U.S. threats of retaliation for the attack on the base in Jordan.
“Sometime, our enemies raise the threat, and nowadays we hear some threats in between words by American officials," Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Hossein Salami, who answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said at an event Wednesday. "We tell them that you have experienced us, and we know each other. We do not leave any threat without an answer."
“We are not after war, but we have no fear of war," he added, according to IRNA.
On Saturday, a general in charge of Iran's air defenses described them as being at their “highest defensive readiness." That raises concerns for commercial aviation traveling through and over Iran as well. After a U.S. drone strike killed a top general in 2020, Iranian air defenses mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 people on board.
Meanwhile, attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels continue in the Red Sea, most recently targeting a U.S. warship. The missile launched Tuesday night targeted the USS Gravely, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, the U.S. military’s Central Command said in a statement. No injuries or damage were reported.
A Houthi military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement Wednesday morning, calling it “a victory for the oppression of the Palestinian people and a response to the American-British aggression against our country."
Saree claimed the Houthis fired “several" missiles, something not acknowledged by the U.S. Navy. Houthi claims have been exaggerated in the past, and their missiles sometimes crash on land and fail to reach their targets.
The Houthis claimed without evidence on Monday to have targeted the USS Lewis B. Puller, a floating landing base used by the Navy SEALs and others. The U.S. said there had been no attack.
On Wednesday, a U.S. military jet struck a surface-to-air missile that was about to launch from Houthi-controlled Yemen, a U.S. official said. The missile was deemed an immediate threat and destroyed. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details ahead of a public announcement.
Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea over Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza. But they have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for global trade between Asia, the Mideast and Europe.
The Houthis hit a commercial vessel with a missile on Friday, sparking a fire that burned for hours.
The U.S. and the United Kingdom have launched multiple rounds of airstrikes targeting the Houthis as allied warships patrol the waterways affected by the attacks. The European Union also plans to launch a naval mission in the Red Sea within three weeks to help defend cargo ships against the Houthi attacks, the bloc’s top diplomat said Wednesday.
___
Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.
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https://www.livemint.com/news/us-umbrella-group-islamic-resistance-in-iraq-responsible-for-strike-that-killed-3-troops-in-jordan/amp-11706727096497.html
| 2024-01-31T23:51:51Z
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Man arrested after reported sexual assault inside Minneapolis City Hall bathroom
Minneapolis police say they arrested a man after a reported sexual assault inside Minneapolis City Hall Monday morning.
The suspect, Jeffery Thomas Fossum, 34, was gone when officers arrived.
Officers spoke to a woman who said she was assaulted inside the women’s bathroom around 10 a.m.
The woman said when she entered a stall, she heard someone enter the bathroom and go into the stall right next to her. She then exited her stall and went to the sink to wash her hands.
The woman said that Fossum then exited the other stall and approached her from behind. Fossum then allegedly groped the victim.
When she screamed, Fossum told her to stay quiet, according to the complaint. When she tried to escape, Fossum tried to block her from leaving the bathroom.
The woman was able to push Fossum away before escaping the bathroom into the hallway, where she called the police.
Fossum was later found at about 4 p.m. in the 1700 block of West River Parkway. He was then arrested and booked into Hennepin County Jail on criminal sexual assault charges.
Police say they found surveillance footage of Fossum in the area where the bathroom is located and footage of him walking out of the building after the time of the alleged assault. Fossum was reportedly wearing the same clothes seen in the footage when he was arrested and matched the description given by the victim.
Officers say they also spoke to a witness who heard the woman screaming that a man touched her in the bathroom. Another witness said that the woman was “very upset, shaking and was in tears.”
The woman also told police that she was afraid he was going to hurt her and that he may have had a weapon.
Court documents show Fossum has multiple previous convictions that include criminal sexual conduct, threats of violence, damage to property, violating restraining orders and stalking.
He remains in custody as of Wednesday afternoon and faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Fossum’s next court appearance is set for the afternoon of Thursday, Feb. 1.
A police spokesperson said that additional security precautions have been taken inside Minneapolis City Hall.
A Minneapolis city spokesperson shared the following statement:
“In an effort to increase security at City Hall, the Municipal Building Commission (the organization that manages the City Hall facility), has secured the upper floor hallways, accessible by card access only.
The City of Minneapolis is dedicated to providing safe workplace environments for their staff while being a safe and welcoming place for its residents to visit and receive services.”
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https://kstp.com/kstp-news/local-news/man-arrested-after-reported-sexual-assault-inside-minneapolis-city-hall-bathroom/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:51Z
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INEC Says 67,315 Voters To Participate In Feb. 3 Re-Run In Enugu
Featured, Latest News, News Across Nigeria Wednesday, January 31st, 2024(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says no fewer than 67,315 eligible voters will participate in the Feb. 3 re-run elections in Enugu State.
INEC’s Head of Department for Voters Education and Publicity, Mr Rex Achumie, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Tuesday while speaking on the voting population for the re-run.
Achumie said that the re-run would take place in Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency and Enugu South (Urban) State Constituency between 8 a.m. and 2:30p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 3.
He said that a total of 173 polling units in 25 Registration Areas, popularly known as political wards, would be open for Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency and Enugu South (Urban) State Constituency re-run elections.
He said that for Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency, there would be a total number of 62,697 eligible voters within 24 Registration Areas as well as 165 polling units.
The INEC official said that for Enugu South (Urban) State Constituency, there would be a total number of 4,618 eligible voters within one Registration Area (political ward) as well as eight polling units.
He said that just like the main 2023 elections, all technological devices of INEC would be deployed, these included: Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Election Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
Achumie noted that all rules and regulations for a normal election would apply and observed during the re-run, assuring that any eligible voter that made himself/herself available before 2:30 p.m. must vote and his/her vote will count.
“The Enugu State INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr Chukwuemeka Chukwu, has been working round the clock to ensure hitch-free elections by ensuring water-tight arrangement and meeting various election stakeholders.
“INEC is ready to conduct free, fair and credible re-run elections and we have started preparation on time from when the Appeal Court pronounced re-run for these two constituencies.
“Apart from meeting with various stakeholders, we have done massive publicity by using local radios and publications in the media (online and mainstream) to sensitise the people on the elections and need for to participate en mass.
“Our Electoral Officers at the ward levels have held meetings and interactive sessions with election stakeholders and the locals; and did sensitise them on the importance and impact of the re-run elections on their socio-economic welfare,” he said.
He urged the residents living in the areas concerned to keep faith with INEC and come out en mass to vote for candidates of their choice in the re-run election. (NAN)
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https://www.africanexaminer.com/inec-says-67315-voters-to-participate-in-feb-3-re-run-in-enugu/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:51Z
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Volunteer of the Week: Karen Jones is making a difference in the lives of others, 1 Miss Mississippi at a time
Published 4:09 pm Wednesday, January 31, 2024
The Vicksburg Post Volunteer of the Week is Karen Jones. Karen is a loan specialist with RiverHills Bank.
She holds a degree in business technology and has been in banking for 40-plus years.
Karen is a member of First Christian Church, where she serves on the board of directors and the finance committee.
She is married to Michael and has two children, Katelyn and Lee, and two grandchildren, John Michael and Harrison.
How did your volunteering for Miss Mississippi begin?
I started volunteering for Miss Mississippi in 1994 after marrying my husband Michael, who was already a volunteer for the program.
What is your favorite memory while volunteering for Miss Mississippi?
There are so many. Volunteering brings together a diverse range of people from all walks of life.
The people that I have met over the years around the state and nation have become cherished and lifelong friends.
I have also booked so many memorable appearances over the years for Miss Mississippi that I will never forget.
What would you tell someone who is thinking about volunteering?
Miss America 2000 Heather French Henry once said “Volunteering is the very core of being a human. No one has made it through life without someone else’s help.”
You spend a lot of time volunteering, but it is a rewarding experience in so many ways. You must be passionate, reliable, and committed to the cause you are supporting.
What are some of your tasks while volunteering for Miss Mississippi?
I serve as business manager for Miss Mississippi and book all of her appearances during her reign.
I am also the judges chairman and serve on the board of directors for the pageant.
What have you learned from volunteering?
I have learned so much over the years, but in my volunteer roles for the organization, I have learned leadership skills, time management, communication skills, the importance of teamwork, organization and planning. I am also thankful to have had a small part in the success of a young lady’s life.
How can others become involved with volunteering with Miss Mississippi?
We always welcome new volunteers to our organization. They can reach out to me or any one of our many volunteers.
They can also reach out to the Miss Mississippi office if they are interested in volunteering.
If there is a volunteer who should be featured, please submit their name and contact information to volunteer@vicksburgpost.com.
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https://www.vicksburgpost.com/2024/01/31/volunteer-of-the-week-karen-jones-is-making-a-difference-in-the-lives-of-others-1-miss-mississippi-at-a-time/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:53Z
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The dueling contests surrounding the Nevada Republican's nominating process has led to voter confusion. And with it, an outcome many in the state saw as inevitable: Trump is the de facto winner.
Copyright 2024 NPR
The dueling contests surrounding the Nevada Republican's nominating process has led to voter confusion. And with it, an outcome many in the state saw as inevitable: Trump is the de facto winner.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kvcrnews.org/2024-01-31/nevadas-gop-nominating-process-is-confusing-and-already-yielded-a-likely-winner
| 2024-01-31T23:51:53Z
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Jorge Rubiano arrived alone in Chicago, but his pain and trauma came with him.
For months, he tried to find steady work. For months, he's been sleeping in a crowded temporary shelter, worrying about his wife and mother back in Colombia. Are they safe? Did I make the right decision?
He recalls a frightening phone call with his wife in Colombia, cut short when the bus she was riding on was being robbed.
Rubiano, 43, is also haunted by memories of his harrowing journey to Chicago, during which he says he was kidnapped for a month, before escaping.
He left his country, he says, over a land dispute in which the government threatened his life.
"I'm still in between two dangers," Rubiano says in Spanish. "If I return it's very possible they kill me, and if I stay I don't know what can happen here."
More than 30,000 migrants and asylum seekers have arrived in Chicago since August of 2022 — most of them from South and Central America. They are fleeing the collapse of their economies, a lack of food and jobs, and violence back home.
Many came here on a bus from Texas, sent by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who said Chicago — and other so-called sanctuary cities that embrace immigrants — would provide much-needed relief "to our small, overrun border towns."
The buses haven't stopped since.
Migrants fleeing hardship, danger, fear and loss
Interviews with more than 30 people reveal the emotional toll migrants face, and the efforts of individuals and organizations that are trying to fill the gaps of a frayed mental health system.
Some of those efforts are catching the attention of leaders in other big U.S. cities also coping with large influxes of newly-arrived migrants.
For many, their journeys here were terrifying. A young girl who fell into a river, her pregnant mother struggling to hold her small hand, so the current wouldn't whisk her away. Women who were forced to have sex with gang members to get from country to country. People who walked over the dead in the jungle, or are wracked with guilt over the sick and injured left behind.
Their stories have unfolded across Chicago: in the quiet space of a therapist's office, at an informal healing circle in the back of a store, with a nurse at a folding table propped up outside a police station.
But for many migrants, taking care of their mental health might not be a priority.
"They're in survival mode," says Sharon Davila, a school-based social worker who has screened migrant families. "They need their basic needs met. The number one thing is they're looking for jobs."
Just getting in front of a therapist or a social worker can be extremely difficult for even the most savvy and persistent. With a shortage of mental health workers, wait lists for an appointment can be months long.
Layer on being new to this country, speaking a different language, and having no health insurance. Getting help can seem impossible.
Therapist Susie Moya worries about a mental health crisis brewing for many migrants.
"Right now it's on the back burner," says Moya, who has worked with migrants on Chicago's Lower West Side. "But I'm thinking a year from now when these families are settled in. Who is going to be providing that support?"
Informal support, with a side of soup
It's a Monday night in the back room of an insurance agency on the Southwest Side. About 20 migrants have arranged their chairs in a circle. Each person takes a turn describing how they feel on a scale of one to 10, as social worker Veronica Sanchez gently encourages them to share why.
Warm homemade chicken soup and arepas await them for dinner.
A woman says her husband got deported, and she's heartbroken that she left her children behind. A man says he worked several days that week, but never got paid. Another says he is grateful to God for bringing him to America, but he misses his mom, dad and brothers.
Finding work and reuniting with family is important, Sanchez tells them. But right now she's concerned about their mental health.
"Maybe we have answers. Maybe we don't. But when you open up a safe space where you can share your sorrows... you don't feel so alone," Sanchez says in Spanish.
Sanchez understands the migrants' desperation. She comes from a long line of pottery makers in Mexico. Sanchez was just four years old when her father left to work in Cicero, a suburb outside Chicago. She didn't see her father for almost seven years, until they were reunited as a family in Cicero.
Those memories fuel her work with the healing circle. "When I was talking to them, it really came from the heart," Sanchez says. "I was seeing the migrants' faces, that they were so scared."
Informal support groups like this one have popped up around Chicago in shelters, storefronts, churches and schools, led by volunteers or mental health professionals.
Many of these support groups don't last long. Volunteers get burned out. Migrants prioritize other needs. Or the city moves them from place to place.
The costs of ignoring loss and trauma
Some volunteers and mental health providers emphasize that not every migrant might be experiencing severe trauma.
But for many, trauma can have lasting impact. Trauma can change the wiring in a person's brain and make someone more vulnerable to depression and anxiety.
Daily or ongoing stressors can add up to what Chicago psychologist Laura Pappa calls "little t trauma" — like not feeling welcomed right away.
"A lot of people come here seeking the American dream and they realize that that's not there," says Pappa, who came to the U.S. from Argentina as a teen. "A lot of people were not expecting that, how hard it is on this side. I've had a lot of parents who've come alone and ask themselves, was it worth it?"
It can be hard to persuade migrants to seek help, however. There's a stigma about the need for mental health care in many immigrant communities, particularly among Latino men, Pappa says.
But, she adds, the stigma is easing as talking about emotions becomes more common.
Training the front-line workers in shelters
One effort to provide faster help involves training hundreds of peoplewho don't have a medical background, but work in city-run shelters. These front-line workers, such as case managers and shelter supervisors, are learning to lead support groups called Café y Comunidad charlas — coffee and community talks.
The initiative is led by the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health, the University of Chicago's Crown Family School, and Lurie Children's Center for Childhood Resilience.
The idea is to help migrants feel less isolated and try to prevent the most extreme outcomes, such as suicide.
"We have to help people the minute they arrive," explainsAimee Hilado, an assistant professor at UC's Crown School and chair of the coalition. "That's actually going to promote healing down the line."
Case manager Albert Ayala has led a charla in the ballroom of a downtown shelter. He recalls moments of joy, such as when a woman said she was searching for love — and hands shot up hoping to catch her attention.
Ayala says he's watched migrants who arrive scared and shy blossom after attending a charla.
"We try to tell them we're no different from you," says Ayala, who is Mexican American. "Your dream is possible."
Leaders in Philadelphia and San Jose have reached out asking how to replicate the effort, Hilado says.
Outside his shelter, Rubiano, the migrant from Colombia, says he hasn't attended one of these support groups. He says he tries to keep busy working on his English skills. And he recently found a full-time job in a supermarket.
He longs for his family, and for the chance to bring them here — once there is a stable life he can offer them.
WBEZ is part of the Mental Health Parity Collaborative, a group of newsrooms covering stories on mental health care access and inequities in the U.S. The Collaborative's partners include The Carter Center, the Center for Public Integrity and newsrooms in select states across the country.
WBEZ's Manuel Martinez contributed to this report.
Copyright 2024 WBEZ
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https://www.mtpr.org/2024-01-31/for-chicagos-new-migrants-informal-support-groups-help-ease-the-pain-and-trauma
| 2024-01-31T23:51:54Z
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From the occupied West Bank, an emergency hotline assists rescue efforts in Gaza By Aya Batrawy Published January 31, 2024 at 2:39 PM PST Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 5:17 NPR visits an emergency hotline center in the West Bank assisting first responders in the Gaza Strip. Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kalw.org/2024-01-31/from-the-occupied-west-bank-an-emergency-hotline-assists-rescue-efforts-in-gaza
| 2024-01-31T23:51:54Z
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From the occupied West Bank, an emergency hotline assists rescue efforts in Gaza By Aya Batrawy Published January 31, 2024 at 2:39 PM PST Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 5:17 NPR visits an emergency hotline center in the West Bank assisting first responders in the Gaza Strip. Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kvpr.org/2024-01-31/from-the-occupied-west-bank-an-emergency-hotline-assists-rescue-efforts-in-gaza
| 2024-01-31T23:51:54Z
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With 50% more power* to crush any ingredient, Philips 5000 Series Hand Blender is the perfect choice for great and even results. Enjoy creamy soups to silky sauces while exploring new ways to prepare your food! See all benefits
Blend even the hardest ingredients in no time
With 50% more power* to crush any ingredient, Philips 5000 Series Hand Blender is the perfect choice for great and even results. Enjoy creamy soups to silky sauces while exploring new ways to prepare your food! See all benefits
If you're eligible for VAT relief on medical devices, you can claim it on this product. The VAT amount will be deducted from the price shown above. Look for full details in your shopping basket.
Blend even the hardest ingredients in no time
With 50% more power* to crush any ingredient, Philips 5000 Series Hand Blender is the perfect choice for great and even results. Enjoy creamy soups to silky sauces while exploring new ways to prepare your food! See all benefits
Blend even the hardest ingredients with our strongest hand blender ever. Enjoy everything from homemade nut milk to frozen fruit smoothies in no time.
Patented technology combines our strongest motor with a uniquely shaped blade unit and splash guard for optimal food movement, easy cleaning, and no mess. Fast and smooth results everytime.
Attach the compact chopper to chop onions and herbs, crush nuts and more. 0.5 L capacity for all small executions you need while preparing your food.
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A one-touch button releases the blending bar with one hand. So you can change attachments without putting down the blender or making a mess on the counter.
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Cleanup couldn't be easier. Due to the ProMix Technology you can release the blending bar and rinse clean under running water.
Make the most of limited cupboard space. Our hand blender and attachments are designed for efficient storage.
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https://www.philips.sa/en/c-p/HR2683_00/5000-series-hand-blender
| 2024-01-31T23:51:54Z
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NEW DELHI: A bill seeking to enact the first-ever national law against use of unfair means to rig public examinations for recruitment to government jobs and admission to central educational institutions will be introduced in Parliament next week. It proposes tough penalties, extending up to 10 years in prison and fine of not less than Rs 1 crore, for organised mafias and individual offenders associated with the examination authorities, service provider firms or institutions.
Announcing the government's intent to bring the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair means) Bill, 2024, President Droupadi Murmu told a joint sitting of Parliament on Wednesday: "My government is aware of the concerns of youth regarding irregularities in examinations.
Therefore, it has been decided to enact a new law to deal sternly with such malpractices".
As reported first by TOI on Wednesday, the thrust of the proposed law is to crack down upon persons, organised mafia and institutions engaged in paper leaks, paper-solving, impersonation, hacking into computer resources, often in collusion with elements within the "system", for monetary or wrongful gains. The bona fide students, whose future gets jeopardised due to undetected leaks, cancellation of exams and holding up of results, will not be liable for action.
TOI has exclusively learnt that persons engaged in impersonation of a candidate, paper-solving, causing holding of examination at a place other than the examination centre or not reporting an exam fraud (like an invigilator) may attract a jail term of 3-5 years and fine of up to Rs 10 lakh. A service provider engaged in conduct of the computer-based examination, if found guilty, will attract fine of up to Rs 1 crore and may be barred from holding the exam for four years. The top management of such a firm, if involved, will face 3-10 years in jail and Rs 1 crore in fine.
An organised group of persons engaged in use of unfair means in public examinations, including those associated with the service provider or the examination authority, will invite jail term of 5-10 years and fine of not less than Rs 1 crore. Institutions engaged in such organised crime will attract fine of not less than Rs 1 crore and may face attachment of property .
Public servants engaged in paper leaks will invite 3-5 years in prison and fine of up to Rs 10 lakh, though ones who act in good faith will be protected from legal proceedings & departmental action. Public servants working for organised exam mafias will face 5-10 years in prison & invite not less than Rs 1 crore in fine.
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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/bill-to-check-exam-paper-leaks-proposes-10-yrs-in-jail-rs-1-crore-fine/articleshow/107305957.cms
| 2024-01-31T23:51:56Z
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Georgia governor signs bill that would define antisemitism in state law
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday signed a law defining antisemitism in state law, proclaiming support for Jewish residents despite concerns the measure would hamper people opposing the actions of Israel.
The Republican governor said by enacting the law, he was “reaffirming our commitment to a Georgia where all people can live, learn and prosper safely, because there’s no place for hate in this great state.”
Kemp likened it to when he signed a measure in 2020 that allows additional penalties to be imposed for crimes motivated by a victim’s race, religion, sexual orientation or other factors. That hate crimes law was spurred by the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man pursued and fatally shot while running near Brunswick, Georgia.
The antisemitism definition measure had stalled in 2023, but was pushed with fresh urgency this year amid the Israel-Hamas war and a reported surge in antisemitic incidents in Georgia. Sponsors say adopting the 2016 definition put forward by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance will help prosecutors and other officials identify hate crimes and illegal discrimination targeting Jewish people. That could lead to higher penalties under the 2020 hate crimes law.
The definition, which is only referred to in the bill, describes antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
Kenneth Stern, the author of IHRA’s definition, told The Associated Press that using such language in law is problematic, because an increasing number of Jews have adopted an antizionist position in opposition to Israeli actions.
Lawmakers in more than a half-dozen additional U.S. states are pushing laws to define antisemitism.
Opponents of the Georgia law warned it would be used to censor free speech rights with criticism of Israel equated to hatred of Jewish people. A coalition of organizations, including Jewish Voice for Peace and CAIR, issued a joint statement saying that the Georgia bill “falsely equates critiques of Israel and Zionism with discrimination against Jewish people.”
But supporters say the definition will only come into play after someone has committed a crime. State Rep. John Carson, a Marietta Republican who was one of the bill’s sponsors, said he believed the measure would be challenged in court the first time it is used, but predicted it would be upheld.
“I’m very confident this will stand up, like it has in other states,” Carson said.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.kob.com/news/us-and-world-news/georgia-governor-signs-bill-that-would-define-antisemitism-in-state-law/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:56Z
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Walz picks Ramsey County judge to fill vacancy on Court of Appeals
The state’s next appellate judge has officially been announced.
Gov. Tim Walz says Ramsey County Judge JaPaul Harris will fill the vacancy on the state court. He fills the spot that opened when Judge Jeffrey Bryan was confirmed to the federal bench in late November.
In his announcement, Walz called Harris “an experienced judge with a diverse practice background who has consistently worked to build trust in the courts.”
“Whether by guiding parties through housing court as a judicial referee or assisting low-income families as a legal aid attorney, he has always been committed to helping those who need it the most,” Walz said.
Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson said that Walz “could not have made a better choice” and called Harris “an intellectually gifted jurist whose wisdom, incisiveness, and depth of character will bring a thoughtful, measured voice to the Court of Appeals.”
Harris was appointed to the Second Judicial District by former Gov. Mark Dayton in July 2018 and was then elected in 2020. Before his current role, Harris spent several years as a judicial referee in Hennepin County and was also an adjunct professor at William Mitchell College of Law, now known as Mitchell Hamline.
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https://kstp.com/kstp-news/local-news/walz-picks-ramsey-county-judge-to-fill-vacancy-on-court-of-appeals/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:57Z
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Ukraine Tells Allies Troops Are Outgunned Three-to-One by Russia
Ukraine has warned its allies that it is facing a “critical” shortage of artillery shells with Russia deploying three times as much firepower on the frontlines each day.
(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine has warned its allies that it is facing a “critical" shortage of artillery shells with Russia deploying three times as much firepower on the frontlines each day.
Defense Minister Rustem Umerov wrote to his European Union counterparts this week describing the massive numerical disadvantage his troops are facing as they try to fight off fresh Russian assaults. He said Ukraine is unable to fire more than 2,000 shells a day across a frontline that stretches for 1,500 kilometers (930 miles), according to a document seen by Bloomberg. That’s less than a third of the ammunition Russia uses.
Ukraine’s weapons shortages are growing worse by the day, Umerov added, as he urged his EU allies to do more to meet their pledge to supply a million artillery rounds. He said Ukaine needs to at least match the firepower deployed its enemy.
“The side with the most ammunition to fight usually wins," Umerov said, according to the document.
The EU acknowledged on Wednesday that it will supply barely half of the shells it had promised by a March deadline, resolving to deliver almost 600,000 more by the end of the year.
Ukraine needs 200,000 155mm shells per month, the document says. Moscow is on track to get almost twice that amount, according to Estonian estimates, with about a million shells coming from North Korea, .
At a meeting of defense ministers on Wednesday, the EU said it will have a capacity to produce 1 million rounds per year and expects to double that capacity to 2 million in 2025. The US is also ramping up production of shells in order to help Ukraine meet its needs.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
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https://www.livemint.com/news/world/ukraine-tells-allies-troops-are-outgunned-three-to-one-by-russia-11706726789488.html
| 2024-01-31T23:51:57Z
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Rise of the Ronin State of Play Extended Gameplay Trailer
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https://in.ign.com/gallery/201413/rise-of-the-ronin-state-of-play-extended-gameplay-trailer
| 2024-01-31T23:51:58Z
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Warren Central High School to receive more than $120k in grant money
Published 4:15 pm Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Mississippi has allocated approximately $1.4 million to career and technical education efforts at 25 high schools and districts across the state, including more than $120k in Warren County.
State officials said the program is aiming to empower students by aligning their education with their future careers or post-secondary education programs.
The EquipMS Grant program, established through House Bill 588 (2023) as the Mississippi K-12 Workforce Development Grant program, aims to provide funding for Mississippi public school districts to modernize, replace, or otherwise enhance priority sector career and technical high school programs.
As part of the program, Warren Central High School will receive $123,094.31 for its engineering program.
Funding for these programs was targeted at manufacturing, healthcare, information technology, economic development priorities, and construction and agriculture, aligning closely with the local industry’s demands.
“Successful career preparation doesn’t begin after a student receives a high school diploma,” AccelerateMS Deputy Director for Strategy and Programs Courtney Taylor said. “Our state’s leadership is showing a strong commitment to strengthening our workforce development at all levels and this investment opens doors for students to acquire skills earlier and in more meaningful ways tied to local job opportunities.”
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https://www.vicksburgpost.com/2024/01/31/warren-central-high-school-receives-more-than-120k-in-grant-money/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:59Z
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A pacific storm is expected to hit the Inland Empire Thursday, bringing widespread rainfall and mountain snow.
The National Weather Service says the public should expect light rain in the morning and persisting showers throughout the day.
Mountain communities above 6,000 feet should prepare for two to six inches of snowfall.
Brian Adams is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. He says travel conditions are going to be less than ideal in a lot of places.
"And then especially as we get later on into the afternoon… you're likely going to be contending with some nasty weather," said Adams. "So you just wanna plan in advance for that."
The storm is expected to impact the Inland Empire through next Wednesday.
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https://www.kvcrnews.org/2024-01-31/rain-snow-storm-to-hit-inland-empire-thursday
| 2024-01-31T23:51:59Z
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JUST IN: One Person Killed, Several Shops Razed As Fire Guts Central Market In Zamfara
Featured, Latest News, News Across Nigeria Wednesday, January 31st, 2024(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – A fire has destroyed several shops at Gusau Central Market, killing one person.
The fire reportedly broke out at around 9 p.m. last night in the furniture section of the state capital’s largest market.
The Commander of the Nigerian Fire Service, New Market office, Hamza Mohammed, informed Channels Television that a shop owner whose name is yet to be identified died while attempting to enter his shop to extinguish a fire forcefully.
Firefighters from the state command have been battling the inferno since 9 p.m. yesterday, preventing it from spreading to other shops.
Mohammed reported that several shops were affected by a fire, but the cause is still unknown.
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https://www.africanexaminer.com/just-in-one-person-killed-several-shops-razed-as-fire-guts-central-market-in-zamfara/
| 2024-01-31T23:51:58Z
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Lawmakers grilled the CEOs of top social media companies in a hearing today By Dara Kerr Published January 31, 2024 at 3:21 PM MST Facebook Twitter Flipboard LinkedIn Email Listen • 3:45 During a contentious hearing, lawmakers demanded that social media companies do better to protect children online. Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.mtpr.org/2024-01-31/lawmakers-grilled-the-ceos-of-top-social-media-companies-in-a-hearing-today
| 2024-01-31T23:52:00Z
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Donald Trump has yet to officially clinch the Republican presidential nomination, but he's already begun to tease about a running mate. The NPR Politics Podcast dives into who might be on his list.
Copyright 2024 NPR
Donald Trump has yet to officially clinch the Republican presidential nomination, but he's already begun to tease about a running mate. The NPR Politics Podcast dives into who might be on his list.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kalw.org/2024-01-31/trump-says-vp-pick-wont-impact-the-race-so-whats-he-looking-for-in-a-running-mate
| 2024-01-31T23:52:00Z
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Lawmakers grilled the CEOs of top social media companies in a hearing today By Dara Kerr Published January 31, 2024 at 2:21 PM PST Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 3:45 During a contentious hearing, lawmakers demanded that social media companies do better to protect children online. Copyright 2024 NPR
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https://www.kvpr.org/2024-01-31/lawmakers-grilled-the-ceos-of-top-social-media-companies-in-a-hearing-today
| 2024-01-31T23:52:00Z
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NEW DELHI: Parliament on Wednesday reverberated with full-throated chants of 'Jai Shri Ram' with members applauding President Droupadi Murmu as she said construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya marked the fulfilment of the country's centuries-old desire and a defining moment which could shape the course of coming centuries.
She also referred to the removal of Art 370 in J&K, law against triple talaq and CAA.
President Droupadi Murmu: 'Construction of Ram Temple was awaited for centuries and Today, it has become a reality'
"There come junctures in the history of civilisations which shape the future for the coming centuries. There have been many such defining moments in the history of India also. This year, on January 22, the country witnessed a similar epochal moment... This was a matter of aspiration and faith for crores of our countrymen and the resolution of this has been accomplished in a harmonious manner," the President said concluding her speech after referring to the Ram temple twice earlier.
This was the first joint session to be hosted in the new Parliament building.Murmu's every reference to the Ram temple was greeted with thunderous applause and she had to pause while the Lok Sabha hall, hosting the first joint sitting, reverberated with thumping of desks. Once, even Congress leader Sonia Gandhi was seen joining the treasury benches.
In her 75-minute speech, seen as the government's vision statement, she mentioned several big ticket reforms in the past 10 years and had multiple mentions of the Ram temple. In the very beginning, she said, "For centuries, there was an aspiration to construct the Ram Mandir. Today it is a reality."
Along with Ram temple, Murmu also referred to BJP fulfilling key poll promises in the last five years.
"There were doubts regarding the removal of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. Those are now history. This Parliament also enacted a strict law against 'triple talaq' and a law to grant citizenship to persecuted minorities from our neighbouring countries," she said.
The President said the government believed that the grand edifice of a 'Viksit Bharat' would be erected on four strong pillars - youth, women, farmers and poor - for whose empowerment the government was working tirelessly as a significant portion of tax revenues had been spent to empower them.
Murmu also hailed the armed forces for giving a befitting reply to terrorism and expansionism, an apparent reference to Pakistan and China, as she asserted that India has emerged as a prominent voice against terrorism in the world.
In her maiden address in the new Parliament building, the President listed the economic reforms undertaken by the government that has transformed India from the group of "fragile five" to the "top five" economies in the world.
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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/president-murmu-ram-mandir-can-shape-course-of-coming-centuries/articleshow/107303809.cms
| 2024-01-31T23:52:02Z
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https://www.philips.sa/en/c-p/HR2683_00/5000-series-hand-blender/support
| 2024-01-31T23:52:01Z
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75-year-old man dies after sheriff’s deputy shocks him with Taser in attempted eviction in Minnesota
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A 75-year-old man has died after a sheriff’s deputy in rural Minnesota shocked him with a Taser during an attempted eviction, officials announced Wednesday.
The cause of Michael James Yanacheak’s death in Willmar is undetermined pending further investigation by the medical examiner, the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said in a statement.
The BCA, which is investigating the incident, said Riley Kampsen is the Kandiyohi County sheriff’s deputy who deployed his Taser. Kampsen has five years of law enforcement experience.
According to the BCA statement, two Kandiyohi County sheriff’s deputies and two Willmar police officers went to Yanacheak’s apartment Monday morning to perform a court-ordered eviction. They tried to get him to open the door, but he didn’t respond. After about an hour, the apartment manager pried open the door, and the officers went inside.
“They found Yanacheak in a bedroom, where he picked up a kitchen knife and walked towards them,” the statement said. “The law enforcement officers tried to retreat out of the apartment, but at one point, Kampsen deployed his Taser, striking Yanacheak.”
The officers provided medical care at the scene until Yanacheak could be taken to the hospital, where he later died. “At no time did anyone involved in this incident discharge a firearm,” the statement said.
A Willmar police officer recovered a knife at the scene, which was later turned over to the BCA. Kampsen and the two Willmar police officers were all wearing body cameras. The BCA is reviewing all available video as part of the investigation.
The Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office asked the BCA to investigate. Once the investigation is complete, the BCA will present its findings without a charging recommendation to the Kandiyohi County Attorney’s Office for review.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://kstp.com/kstp-news/minnesota-news/75-year-old-man-dies-after-sheriffs-deputy-shocks-him-with-taser-in-attempted-eviction-in-minnesota/
| 2024-01-31T23:52:03Z
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Splatoon with soap reveals some new information about its first season just before its full release on the 6th of February.
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https://www.gamereactor.eu/video/673753/Foamstars+-+Season+Information+Announce+Trailer/
| 2024-01-31T23:52:03Z
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(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine has warned its allies that it is facing a “critical" shortage of artillery shells with Russia deploying three times as much firepower on the frontlines each day.
Defense Minister Rustem Umerov wrote to his European Union counterparts this week describing the massive numerical disadvantage his troops are facing as they try to fight off fresh Russian assaults. He said Ukraine is unable to fire more than 2,000 shells a day across a frontline that stretches for 1,500 kilometers (930 miles), according to a document seen by Bloomberg. That’s less than a third of the ammunition Russia uses.
Ukraine’s weapons shortages are growing worse by the day, Umerov added, as he urged his EU allies to do more to meet their pledge to supply a million artillery rounds. He said Ukaine needs to at least match the firepower deployed its enemy.
“The side with the most ammunition to fight usually wins," Umerov said, according to the document.
The EU acknowledged on Wednesday that it will supply barely half of the shells it had promised by a March deadline, resolving to deliver almost 600,000 more by the end of the year.
Ukraine needs 200,000 155mm shells per month, the document says. Moscow is on track to get almost twice that amount, according to Estonian estimates, with about a million shells coming from North Korea, .
At a meeting of defense ministers on Wednesday, the EU said it will have a capacity to produce 1 million rounds per year and expects to double that capacity to 2 million in 2025. The US is also ramping up production of shells in order to help Ukraine meet its needs.
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More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
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https://www.livemint.com/news/world/ukraine-tells-allies-troops-are-outgunned-three-to-one-by-russia/amp-11706726789488.html
| 2024-01-31T23:52:03Z
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Judge: Florida official overstepped authority in DeSantis effort to stop pro-Palestinian group
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge refused to take action against Florida on Wednesday in a lawsuit challenging an order to deactivate pro-Palestinian student groups, essentially because nothing has been done to follow through with the directive.
State university Board of Governors Chancellor Ray Rodrigues wrote to university presidents in October at Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ urging, directing them to disband chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine. He said the groups are supporting a terrorist organization based on the national group’s declaration that “Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement.”
The American Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of the University of Florida Students for Justice in Palestine chapter to prevent deactivation, but Judge Mark Warner denied an injunction because the group is still active. He wrote that Rodrigues overstepped his authority.
“Neither the Governor, nor the Chancellor, nor the BOG (Board of Governors) have the formal power to punish student organizations,” Warner said.
Individual university boards of trustees, which have that power, haven’t taken any steps to disband the groups, and Walker said Rodrigues has acknowledged that the student chapters aren’t under the control of the national organization.
Walker acknowledged the groups had a reason to feel anxious, especially after DeSantis called them terrorists and falsely proclaimed while campaigning for president that he deactivated the groups. DeSantis has since dropped out of the race.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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https://www.kob.com/news/us-and-world-news/judge-florida-official-overstepped-authority-in-desantis-effort-to-stop-pro-palestinian-group/
| 2024-01-31T23:52:03Z
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