Sunday, July 31, 2022

Habil Nancy Pelosi begins Asia Nature Online Access Polish Get then More heath Update

 There has been intense speculation that she may visit the self-ruled island.

Taiwan is claimed by China - which has warned of "serious consequences" if she goes there.

No high-ranking US elected official has visited Taiwan in 25 years.

Arnold Donald, CEO and president of Carnival Corp., the parent company to several cruise lines, is scheduled to step down Monday, after helming the cruise giant for nearly a decade.

Donald told USA TODAY the decision came as part of an ongoing planning and leadership development process that's been going on at the company internally.

"I've been in the role for nine years. And I'm also, you know, getting to an age where it makes sense to have the next generation step in, and so that's how we got there," he said.

Carnival Corp. announced in April that Donald would transition to vice chair and a member of the company's board of directors after his tenure as CEO and president was completed.

Donald, who started in the role in 2013 and led Carnival through the COVID-19 pandemic, will be succeeded by Josh Weinstein, who previously served the company as its chief operations officer.

Arnold Donald has served as president and CEO of Carnival Corp. since 2013.
 

The CDC ended its COVID-19 program for cruise ships:What does that mean for travelers?

Cruises are a cheaper way to travel right now:Here's what to know, when to book

In a statement shared with USA TODAY, Weinstein said that he feels privileged to have been given the opportunity to take on the role, adding that succeeding Donald is "quite an honor."

Ms Pelosi, a California Democrat, tweeted that the six-person Congressional delegation tour would seek to "reaffirm America's unshakeable commitment to our allies and friends in the region".

Her office said the tour was to the "Indo-Pacific region" - "including" visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.

 

China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that must become a part of the country. Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve this in the future.

Chinese officials have expressed anger over what they view as growing diplomatic engagement between Taipei and Washington. There was a surprise visit to the island by six US lawmakers in April.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged residents of the country’s eastern-most Donetsk region to leave the province as Russia continues its offensive to conquer the area. In a regular nightly video address to the nation, Zelenskyy said hundreds of thousands of people were still living in the industrial heartland where “the fiercest fighting” was taking place. He told Ukrainians that an evacuation of Donetsk “needs to be done . . . now” so that “the Russian army” will kill fewer people. Moscow is trying to take over the whole of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, made up of the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk. Russian forces now occupy all of Luhansk. The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented more than 5,200 civilian deaths in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began and believes more have been killed amid Russia’s bombardment of civilian areas. Moscow has since late March refocused its war efforts on eastern Ukraine, having failed to capture the capital Kyiv in the weeks after its February 24 invasion, concentrating on taking the remaining Donbas territory, the region Russian covertly invaded in 2014. Ukraine, now using advanced weaponry supplied by the west, has been able to disrupt Russian supply lines and logistics. Kyiv has been slowly regaining territory in the south, and the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in June Ukrainian forces have liberated more territory than they have lost since the start of the invasion. In the Russian-occupied Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, also forcibly seized in 2014, the Russian governor of Sevastopol said on Sunday that a drone had struck the headquarters of the Black Sea fleet, wounding five people. The unmanned aerial strike took place on Russia’s revered Navy Day and festivities in Sevastopol were subsequently cancelled. On his Telegram channel, governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said the Federal Security Service was investigating the incident. The Black Sea fleet’s press service said “a low-yield explosive device mounted on a makeshift drone” had struck the area. The reported Sevastopol strike comes after an agreement between Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the UN was signed last week to clear maritime waterways for the export of Ukrainian grain to bordering countries. A regional Ukrainian official denied involvement in the drone strike. Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa Military Administration, described the incident as a “false-flag” operation and said “Ukraine would liberate the Crimea by other means”. In April Russia’s Moskva missile cruiser, its flagship in the Black Sea, was sunk by Ukrainian missiles. Neither of the warring sides has disclosed its casualty figures in the bloodiest war on the European continent since the second world war. Zelenskyy has urged the west to designate Russia a “terrorist state” in response to civilian atrocities including sexual violence, indiscriminate killing of civilians and looting.

The US has formal diplomatic ties with China, and not Taiwan.

Ms Pelosi has long been a vocal critic of the Chinese leadership, denouncing its human rights record. She has met pro-democracy dissidents and visited Tiananmen Square to commemorate victims of the 1989 massacre.

  • Nancy Pelosi's long history of opposing Beijing

Her original plan was to visit Taiwan in April, but she postponed the trip after she tested positive for Covid-19.

Earlier this month she said it was "important for us to show support for Taiwan".

 

President Joe Biden has said the US military believes a Pelosi visit to Taiwan is "not a good idea right now".

The statement from her office on Sunday said the tour would "focus on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance in the Indo-Pacific region".

Their talks will also cover trade, the climate crisis and human rights.

The delegates accompanying Ms Pelosi are leading members of the House of Representatives: Gregory Meeks, Mark Takano, Suzan DelBene, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Andy Kim.

The last House Speaker to visit Taiwan was Republican Newt Gingrich, in 1997.

The war between Russia and Ukraine recently surpassed the five month mark. What initially started out as a fast-paced, dynamic war has turned into a slow-moving, crushing war of attrition that neither side desired. Indeed, Russia’s initial strategy was to overwhelm Ukrainian defense forces, seize Kiev, and force the government to capitulate. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian strategy projected that international pressure, coupled with crushing the initial invasion, would force the Russians to pull out of their country.

 
 

At the strategic level, the military leadership and governments of both countries have remained committed to their initial objectives. The Russian military seeks to “demilitarize” Ukraine, a euphemism for destroying their military and taking control of the country. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military wants to expel the Russian invaders from their country. While many are skeptical of either country achieving their objectives, both countries have adopted strategies that could eventually allow them to achieve their goals.

Next month marks one year since Kabul fell. On Aug. 15, 2021, after 20 years of occupation, the United States was withdrawing from Afghanistan as the Taliban encroached upon the capital.

Memories of past civil wars still haunted Kabul. Many of my relatives rushed to the Kabul airport hoping to make it out. Some waited days at checkpoints, amid massive crowds, but after a suicide bombing rocked the airport — at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. military personnel were killed in the chaos — the last planes flew out of Kabul without them. In West Sacramento, Calif., my family and I watched the news and called our relatives for updates, feeling helpless.

A few weeks later, I began to hear of a U.S. government program called “humanitarian parole.” Essentially, it was a special program that could grant temporary entry into the U.S. for “urgent humanitarian reasons.” Online, I read that Afghans qualified for humanitarian parole because of Kabul’s fall and a majority of Afghans had no other pathway out. The applications were expensive, $575 per person, but it seemed like a legitimate route into the U.S. My father, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1983, was less optimistic. “It’s a scam,” he said. “Only those with connections will get out.”

Much of the Russian strategy is focused on the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. In this region, the Russian military has adopted a traditional “fire-and-maneuver” tactic, where they barrage a region with artillery and then move their infantry into the region to secure it. This process is fairly effective for taking territory, albeit slow, expensive, and resulting in extensive collateral damage. The Russian military can achieve this type of maneuver given the large amount of artillery allocated to each Battalion Tactical Group. This slow-moving process allows the Russian ground forces to have cover from their artillery and air-defense assets, limiting the ability of Ukrainian artillery and drones.

 
 

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

US proposes releasing Russian Covid And cancer Update Today Zafur Ali India Online 2023

 In a sharp reversal, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Wednesday that he will hold a call with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov "in the coming days," which will mark the first time the two have spoken since the war in Ukraine began and will be a meaningful step toward reopening high-level diplomatic channels between the two countries.

Blinken told reporters during a press briefing that a critical topic of discussion will be securing the freedom of WNBA superstar Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan, both of whom are held in Russia.

The secretary revealed that the U.S. has already put forward a plan to accomplish that and is hopeful for a breakthrough on their cases.

Alabama is set to execute a man Thursday evening who was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend nearly three decades ago, despite a request from the victim’s family to spare his life.

Joe Nathan James Jr. is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. CDT at a south Alabama prison. James was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1994 shooting death of Faith Hall, 26, in Birmingham. Hall's daughters have said they would rather James serve life in prison. But Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said Wednesday she planned to let the execution proceed.

Dubai Houses

Prosecutors said James briefly dated Hall and that he became obsessed. after she rejected him, stalking and harassing her for months before killing her. On Aug. 15, 1994, after Hall had been out shopping with a friend, James forced his way inside the friend's apartment, pulled a gun from his waistband and shot Hall three times, according to court documents.

A Jefferson County jury first convicted James of capital murder in 1996 and voted to recommend the death penalty, which a judge imposed. The conviction was overturned when a state appeals court ruled a judge had wrongly admitted some police reports into evidence. James was retried and again sentenced to death in 1999, when jurors rejected defense claims that he was under emotional duress at the time of the shooting.

Hall’s two daughters, who were 3 and 6 when their mother. was killed, had said recently they would rather James serve life in prison.

“I just feel like we can’t play God. We can’t take a life. And it’s not going to bring my mom back,” one of the daughters, Terryln Hall, told The Associated Press in a recent telephone interview.

“We thought about it and prayed about it, and we found it in ourselves to forgive him for what he did. We really wish there was something that we could do to stop it,” Hall had said, adding the road to forgiveness was long.

“I did hate him. I did. And I know hate is such a strong feeling word, but I really did have hate in my heart. As I got older and realized, you can’t walk around with hate in your heart. You still got to live. And once I had kids of my own, you know, I can’t pass it down to my kids and have them walk around with hate in their hearts,” she said.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall had urged Ivey to let the execution go forward, writing that “it is our obligation to ensure that justice is done for the people of Alabama.”

“The jury in James’s case unanimously decided that his brutal murder of Faith Hall warranted a sentence of death,” Marshall said.

In response to a reporter's question, Ivey said Wednesday she would not intervene.

“My staff and I have researched all the records and all the facts and there’s no reason to change the procedure or modify the outcome. The execution will go forward," she said.

James has acted as his own attorney in his bid to stop his execution, mailing handwritten lawsuits and appeal notices to the courts from death row. A lawyer on Wednesday filed the latest appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court on his behalf.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Conservative councillors have heavily criticised the plans barely a week after they voted for the revised draft strategy for the Forest of Dean District local plan to go out for consultation.

Their main concerns centre around the proposed growth for Lydney and Beachley, which they fear could lead to grid-lock on the A48.

Tory group leader Harry Ives said: "After the cabinet's failed plan to create a new village near Churcham, they are now hoping to build 2,460 houses in Lydney.

 

"These plans will put immense pressure on local healthcare, education, employment and leisure facilities. It's complete madness and residents deserve better".

'Moral compass'

Conservative councillor Alan Preest said infrastructure and engagement with the public had to be the defining factors before any further large scale development was permitted.

He said: "Fundamentally, the moral compass in the authority, pertaining to localism, empowering communities, respecting and listening to local residents/existing communities, should be minutely examined and changed. Then, with a bit of common-sense, you may have a fit for purpose plan."

Council leader Tim Gwilliam, of the Progressive Independents, told councillors last week the council wanted to examine the economic, social and environmental priorities and opportunities the new plan could bring.

 

He said Lydney had been let down by previous local plans and he viewed the latest one as an opportunity to build on the town's position and turn it into a "gateway to the Forest".

He responded to the Conservative group's concerns, saying: "I have great faith in both Lydney and the Forest of Dean in attracting business investment to deliver what's needed to make the plan work.

"If we can't, we will have to look again in the same way that the previous consultation told us to look at an alternative strategy."

James asked justices for a stay, noting the opposition of Hall's family and arguing that Alabama did not give inmates adequate notice of their right to select an alternate execution method.

He argued that Alabama officials, after lawmakers approved nitrogen hypoxia as a new execution method, gave inmates only a brief window of time to select the new method and inmates did not know what was at stake when they were handed a selection form without any explanation. Alabama is not scheduling executions for inmates who selected nitrogen. The state has not developed a system for using nitrogen to carry out death sentences.

From news to politics, travel to sport, culture to climate – The Independent has a host of free newsletters to suit your interests. To find the stories you want to read, and more, in your inbox, click here.

Three sources familiar with the offer confirmed to ABC News that the U.S. had proposed exchanging convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout in order to secure Griner and Whelan's release from Russia. (CNN was first to report this plan.)

Russia has not yet responded to the offer.

Neither Blinken nor White House spokesman John Kirby would confirm details -- only reiterating that such cases were delicate, requiring the balance of national security interests with the importance of protecting Americans abroad.

"[They] have been wrongly detained and must be allowed to come home," Blinken said. "We put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release. Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal, and I'll use the conversation to follow up personally and I hope move us toward a resolution."

Asked repeatedly about the specifics of the proposal, Blinken declined to shed much more light.

You'll understand that I can't and won't get into any of the details of what we've proposed to the Russians over the course of some many weeks now," Blinken said. "Here's what I can say: First, as I mentioned, we've conveyed this on a number of occasions and directly to Russian officials. And my hope would be that in speaking to Foreign Minister Lavrov, I can advance the efforts to bring them home."

"My interest and my focus is making sure that, to the best of our ability, we get to yes," he said.

A potentially key figure in this is Bout -- the former Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year prison sentence, dubbed the "Merchant of Death" by the media, whom the U.S. offered to swap for both Griner and Whelan. Before Wednesday's proposal was announced, officials had indicated to ABC News that a Bout trade was one potential option.

Bout's attorney Albert Dayan told ABC News that he welcomed a deal: "I encourage both of the governments, United Sates and Russia, in these particular cases to agree to the exchange. Especially since Mr. Bout has already served more than the majority of his sentence." Dayan said his client had spend "much time in solitary confinement."

Blinken on Wednesday acknowledged there was precedent for prisoner trades.

"We demonstrated with Trevor Reed, who came home some months ago, that the president is prepared to make tough decisions if it means the safe return of Americans," Blinken told reporters, referring to the former Marine jailed in Russia before he was exchanged for Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was serving a 20-year sentence in the U.S. for drug smuggling.

Blinken said that President Joe Biden played an active role in crafting the proposal for Griner and Whelan.

Sections of a renowned peatland tropical forest in the Congo Basin that plays a crucial role in Africa’s climate system go up for oil and gas auction in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Thursday.

The DRC government will auction 30 oil and gas blocks in the Cuvette-Centrale Peatlands in the Congo Basin forest — the world’s largest tropical peatland. Peatland soils are known as ‘carbon sinks’ because packed into them are immense stores of carbon that get released into the atmosphere when the ecosystem is disturbed.

Some of the areas, or blocs, marked for oil leasing lie within Africa’s iconic first conservation area, the Virunga National Park, created in 1925 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, home to the last bastion of mountain gorillas.

The Congo basin covers 530 million hectares (1.3 billion acres) in central Africa and represents 70% of the continent’s forested land. It hosts over a thousand bird species and more primates than any other place in the world, including the great apes: gorillas, chimpanzees and Bonobos.

The move by the Congo-Kinshasa Ministry of Hydrocarbons has angered environmentalists and climate activists who say that oil drilling will pose significant risks to a continent already inundated by harsh climate effects. The Centre for International Forest Research puts the massive Cuvette-Centrale carbon sink at 145,000 square kilometers (56,000 square miles) and said it stores up to 20 years’ equivalent of the carbon emissions emitted by the United States.

Other blocs the DRC plans to auction include some located on Lake Kivu, Lake Tanganyika, and one in a coastal region alongside the Albertine-Grabben region, the western side of the Eastern African Rift Valley system.

“These are the last refuges of nature biodiversity,” and our last carbon sinks, said Ken Mwathe, of BirdLife International in Africa. “We must not sacrifice these valuable natural assets for damaging development.”

The auction of part of the Congo Basin rainforest, which represents 5% of the global tropical forests, comes barely a week after the International Union for the Conservation of Nature hosted the inaugural Africa Protected Areas Congress in Kigali, Rwanda. There, attendees resolved to strengthen protection of Africa’s key biodiversity hotspots.

The DRC is one of 17 nations in the world classified as “megadiverse.” In September last year, at the World Conservation Congress meeting in France, 137 resolutions dubbed the “Marseille Manifesto” highlighted the significant role the Congo Basin is expected to play in the global commitment to protect 30% of the Earth by 2030.

Last year at the U.N. climate conference COP26, a dozen donors dubbed the Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use, pledged some $1.5 billion “to working collectively to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.”

The Democratic Republic’s carbon sponge is also at risk from large-scale logging, expansion of agriculture and the planned diversion of the Congo River’s waters into the shrinking Lake Chad.

ADVER

A former KGB comrade of Vladimir Putin's could be next in line to take the Russian president's place in power, the former head of British intelligence predicted.

Speculation over a possible Putin replacement has surged in recent months amid conflicting reports that the Russian leader's health could be in decline. Kremlin insiders have even quietly begun discussing potential successors in case Putin is forced out over the Ukrainian invasion or succumbs to a hypothetical illness, according to reports.

Sir Richard Dearlove, who served as head of the UK's Secret Intelligence Service from 1999 to 2004, asserted this week that the most likely heir candidate is Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia's Security Council and a longtime Putin ally known to be one of exceedingly few officials to have the president's trust.

"I'm almost certain it would Patrushev," Dearlove said on a Thursday episode of the podcast "One Decision," which he co-hosts, during a discussion about the ongoing impacts of Putin's war in Ukraine, more than five months after Russian forces invaded.

The former MI6 chief has previously theorized about Putin's likely longevity. In May, Dearlove on his podcast predicted that Putin will be out of power by 2023 and forced into a medical facility for long-term illness in an effort to remove the president without a coup.

The Kremlin has denied that Putin is suffering from any health issues, and Putin himself said in June that such claims were "greatly exaggerated." CIA Director William Burns this month also dispelled rumors about the state of Putin's health, saying "as far as we can tell, he's entirely too healthy."

But questions remain, and Patrushev's emergence as a dependable frontman and frequent, public promoter of Russia's war in recent months has prompted questions about his personal aims and whether or not he may be seeking Putin's power for himself.

A Kremlin spokesperson told The Washington Post earlier this month that Patrushev's role had not significantly changed and brushed off suggestions that the security secretary had amassed new powers. Similarly, a spokesperson for the Security Council denied to the outlet that Patrushev is seeking any advancement.

GenSight Biologics (Euronext: SIGHT, ISIN: FR0013183985, PEA-PME eligible), a biopharma company focused on developing and commercializing innovative gene therapies for retinal neurodegenerative diseases and central nervous system disorders, today reported its interim financial results for the first half of 2022. The full interim financial report is available on the Company’s website in the Investors section. The 2022 half-year financial statements were subject to a limited review by the Company’s statutory auditors and approved by the Board of Directors on July 27, 2022.

"We continue to focus our efforts and resources in 2022 on addressing our manufacturing challenges while getting ready for the successful commercial launch of LUMEVOQ in 2023," commented Thomas Gidoin, Chief Financial Officer of GenSight Biologics. "With a current cash runway to early Q1 2023, we have been assessing several financing options, non or as little dilutive as possible, over the past few months, and are now wrapping up discussions aiming at closing a transaction in favorable terms in the Fall."


Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Dhaka Town In making plans in case Pelosi travels Bus Free Tricked 2022 Online best

 The body of a newlywed pharmacist who was found beaten to death in the bathroom of a luxury honeymoon bungalow in Fiji was so badly injured that it could not be embalmed and had to be cremated before her parents could take her home to the United States. 

Memphis woman Christe Chen, 36, was found dead on July 9 at the secluded $3,500-a-night Turtle Island Resort. She and her husband, Bradley Robert Dawson, 38 - who she married in February - had only checked into the resort two days earlier. 

The couple married after a whirlwind romance in February - three months after they first met - and her parents paid for their honeymoon.  

DailyMail.com revealed that Chen was found bloodied on the bathroom floor of the couple's luxury bungalow. She had suffered multiple traumatic injuries to her body, and blunt force trauma to the head, according to a post-mortem exam report. 

Dawson appeared at the Lautoka High Court on Tuesday evening (ET), clutching a small blue suitcase in anticipation of a bail hearing. However, the date was rescheduled to August 18. He has maintained Chen's death was an accident.

Ronald Gordon, a lawyer representing Chen's estate and her parents, told DailyMail.com that they will take civil action against Dawson if he is not held criminally liable for her death and have not ruled out legal action against Turtle Island Resort. He added that he will also oppose any bail application. 

'The family will follow the proceedings to ensure justice is served for Christe given the horrific injuries she endured,' he told DailyMail.com on Tuesday. 

'The deceased was unable to be taken back to her home because of the nature of her injuries … so she had to be cremated here in Fiji and her ashes were taken back.

Memphis woman Christe Chen, 36, was found dead on July 9 at the secluded $3,500-a-night Turtle Island Resort. She and her husband, Bradley Robert Dawson, 38 - who she married in February - had only checked into the resort two days earlier

Memphis woman Christe Chen, 36, was found dead on July 9 at the secluded $3,500-a-night Turtle Island Resort. She and her husband, Bradley Robert Dawson, 38 - who she married in February - had only checked into the resort two days earlier

 U.S. officials say they have little fear that China would attack Nancy Pelosi’s plane if she flies to Taiwan. But the U.S. House speaker would be entering one of the world’s hottest spots where a mishap, misstep or misunderstanding could endanger her safety. So the Pentagon is developing plans for any contingency.

Officials told The Associated Press that if Pelosi goes to Taiwan — still an uncertainty — the military would increase its movement of forces and assets in the Indo-Pacific region. They declined to provide details, but said that fighter jets, ships, surveillance assets and other military systems would likely be used to provide overlapping rings of protection for her flight to Taiwan and any time on the ground there.

Any foreign travel by a senior U.S. leader requires additional security. But officials said this week that a visit to Taiwan by Pelosi — she would be the highest-ranking U.S. elected official to visit Taiwan since 1997 — would go beyond the usual safety precautions for trips to less risky destinations.

Asked about planned military steps to protect Pelosi in the event of a visit, U.S. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday that discussion of any specific travel is premature. But, he added, “if there’s a decision made that Speaker Pelosi or anyone else is going to travel and they asked for military support, we will do what is necessary to ensure a safe conduct of their visit. And I’ll just leave it at that.”

China considers self-ruling Taiwan its own territory and has raised the prospect of annexing it by force. The U.S. maintains informal relations and defense ties with Taiwan even as it recognizes Beijing as the government of China.

The trip is being considered at a time when China has escalated what the U.S. and its allies in the Pacific describe as risky one-on-one confrontations with other militaries to assert its sweeping territorial claims. The incidents have included dangerously close fly-bys that force other pilots to swerve to avoid collisions, or harassment or obstruction of air and ship crews, including with blinding lasers or water cannon.

Dozens of such maneuvers have occurred this year alone, Ely Ratner, U.S. assistant defense secretary, said Tuesday at a South China Sea forum by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. China denies the incidents.

The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues, described the need to create buffer zones around the speaker and her plane. The U.S. already has substantial forces spread across the region, so any increased security could largely be handled by assets already in place.

The military would also have to be prepared for any incident — even an accident either in the air or on the ground. They said the U.S. would need to have rescue capabilities nearby and suggested that could include helicopters on ships already in the area.

Pelosi, D-Calif., has not publicly confirmed any new plans for a trip to Taiwan. She was going to go in April, but she postponed the trip after testing positive for COVID-19.

The White House on Monday declined to weigh in directly on the matter, noting she had not confirmed the trip. But President Joe Biden last week raised concerns about it, telling reporters that the military thinks her trip is “not a good idea right now.”

A Pelosi trip may well loom over a call planned for Thursday between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, their first conversation in four months. A U.S. official confirmed plans for the call to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity ahead of the formal announcement.

U.S. officials have said the administration doubts that China would take direct action against Pelosi herself or try to sabotage the visit. But they don’t rule out the possibility that China could escalate provocative overflights of military aircraft in or near Taiwanese airspace and naval patrols in the Taiwan Strait should the trip take place. And they don’t preclude Chinese actions elsewhere in the region as a show of strength.

Security analysts were divided Tuesday about the extent of any threat during a trip and the need for any additional military protection.

The biggest risk during Pelosi’s trip is of some Chinese show of force “gone awry, or some type of accident that comes out of a demonstration of provocative action,” said Mark Cozad, acting associate director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the Rand Corp. “So it could be an air collision. It could be some sort of missile test, and, again, when you’re doing those types of things, you know, there is always the possibility that something could go wrong.”

The United States and its allies should certainly continue providing Ukraine with the matériel it needs, but they should also — in close consultation with Kyiv — begin opening channels of communication with Russia. An eventual cease-fire should be the goal, even as the path to it remains uncertain.

 

Starting talks while the fighting rages would be politically risky and would require significant diplomatic efforts, particularly with Ukraine — and success is anything but guaranteed. But talking can reveal the possible space for compromise and identify a way out of the spiral. Otherwise, this war could eventually bring Russia and NATO into direct conflict.

The current U.S. approach assumes that would happen only if the Ukrainians are given particular systems or capabilities that cross a Russian red line. So when President Biden recently announced his decision to provide Ukraine with the multiple-launch rocket system that Kyiv says it desperately needs, he deliberately withheld the longest-range munitions that could strike Russia. The premise of the decision was that Moscow will escalate — i.e., launch an attack against NATO — only if certain types of weapons are provided or if they are used to target Russian territory. The goal is to be careful to stop short of that line while giving the Ukrainians what they need to “defend their territory from Russian advances,” as Mr.

The new constitution, analysts note, weakens checks and balances in the political system and states that the president “cannot be questioned” about his actions during the discharge of his duties. It also gives the president extensive authority over the judiciary and government, allows him to dissolve parliament and issue laws by decree in its absence. He can remain as president beyond the two terms allowed by the constitution if he believes the country is in danger. “This is the start of a dictatorial era,” said Afaf Daoud, a leader of the Takatol opposition party, one of several groups that had called for a boycott of the referendum. “Under his constitution, there is no counterweight to him because he has marginalised parliament. The charter makes the president completely unaccountable.” Saied has been quoted as saying the next step would be a new electoral law. Such legislation, his opponents warn, will be entirely shaped by the president who has been ruling by decree since September after he shut parliament and seized all powers in July 2021. Until Saied’s power grab, Tunisia was seen as the only example of a successful democratic transition in Arab countries which rose up against dictatorial rule in 2011. The country’s 2014 constitution, the result of extensive open debate, was internationally hailed as a democratic achievement and a milestone in a region where dictatorship is the norm.

view of the environment surrounding the officer during a weekslong field test. Called the Nexx360, the officer’s collar holds four wide-angle cameras. Instead of capturing footage of a narrow field of view in front of the officer, this system gives an all-around view. “This has the potential for being a game-changer,” said Sheriff John Shearon. “There are times when we don’t get good footage of an encounter. The officer may be moving to protect themselves or others; the other person may be moving. An officer doesn’t need to think about where they need to be to get the best body camera footage. This solves that problem.” The cameras serve as a “dispassionate observer,” said Terry Luck, a longtime defense attorney whose practice is in Montgomery. The technology also allows dispatchers – and supervisors – to get real-time images of what’s happening. That’s a huge advantage in rural counties, where help in the form of backup can be 20 minutes or more away, Shearon said.

Alaska

Juneau: Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she recently tested positive for the coronavirus. In a statement on social media, Murkowski said she recently tested positive after experiencing flulike symptoms. The statement did not specify the timing of the test. Her campaign posted photos of events that Murkowski participated in Friday and Saturday in Fairbanks. “I will be following guidance and advice from doctors and will be quarantining at home in Alaska while continuing my work remotely,” Murkowski’s statement said. Karina Borger, a spokesperson in Murkowski’s Senate office, said by email that Murkowski is “vaccinated and boosted.” Borger said she had nothing more to share beyond the social media post.

Monday, July 25, 2022

Japan takes another step toward Covid Russia And Japan Kamal Vai Update today best news

 People hoping to cross the Channel to France this weekend are being warned it will be very busy again, after three days of queues and delays.

And that pattern could continue with drivers warned by the AA they could face a summer of repeat delays.

Vehicles are flowing freely on Monday after a weekend that saw miles of tailbacks build up in Kent.

Kent Resilience Forum's Toby Howe said it was a "very vulnerable situation" and took little to cause congestion.

Queues of lorries have begun to build at Dover, although the port said traffic was flowing normally.

Despite the improved traffic flow a critical incident declared over the weekend has remained in force.

 

Ferry operator DFDS told passengers there were "queues of around an hour" for French border checks, while P&O Ferries said queues had picked up.

  •  

Over the weekend traffic built up on the roads leading to the Eurotunnel terminal in Folkestone and Port of Dover after the M20 motorway through Kent to the south coast was closed to cars from Maidstone to Folkestone because of Operation Brock, which sees lorries diverted to park on the motorway.

With the motorway shut, car drivers were diverted to smaller roads which then got jammed with miles of tailbacks.

Some people reported sleeping overnight in their cars, while one tired family said the last three miles of their journey took 21 hours.

He said on Friday the Port of Dover had issues with a lack of resources, which was compounded by a crash on the motorway.

"You only need another crash on the road or maybe a train breakdown or a power failure somewhere for it to then become a big problem."

Mr Howe said there needed to be more infrastructure in place to take traffic off the roads, such as lorry parks.

"We shouldn't really have to have queues of traffic due to all of this, so we need more infrastructure in place," he said.

The AA's head of roads policy Jack Cousens said it had been an "incredible weekend of traffic jams" but warned the group was concerned "we could be in for a repeat of this congestion across the summer".

 

John Keefe, director of public affairs for Getlink - which operates the Eurotunnel between Folkestone and Calais, said the issue over the weekend had been caused by the expected "very heavy traffic of passengers" getting away on holidays alongside an unexpected amount of truck traffic, which would normally have crossed to France earlier but had been delayed by an accident on the motorway.

He said there were several factors that could help ease the situation, including bringing in digital technology to speed up border checks, increasing the resilience of the road network - with two of the UK's biggest ports served by the same motorway - and improving the Channel tunnel railway network.

Mr Keefe added: "There are definitely solutions. These solutions are not new. They've been on the table for many, many years.

Taiwan’s capital staged air raid drills Monday and its military mobilized for routine defense exercises, coinciding with concerns over a forceful Chinese response to a possible visit to the island by U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

While there was no direct link between China’s renewed threats and Taiwan’s defensive moves, they underscore the possibility of a renewed crisis in the Taiwan Strait, considered a potential hotspot for conflict that could envelop the entire region.

Air raid sirens were sounded in the capital Taipei and the military was holding its annual multi-day Han Kuang drills, including joint air and sea exercises and the mobilization of tanks and troops.

In Taipei, police directed randomly selected subway commuters to shelters when a siren went off shortly after lunchtime. Most departed after about 15 minutes.

Pelosi has not confirmed when, or even if, she will visit, but President Joe Biden last week told reporters that U.S. military officials believed such a trip was “not a good idea.” Administration officials are believed to be critical of a possible trip, both for the problematic timing and the lack of coordination with the White House.

China’s authoritarian ruling Communist Party considers democratic, self-ruling Taiwan its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary, and regularly advertises that threat by staging military exercises and flying warplanes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone or across the center line of the 180-kilometer (100-mile) -wide Taiwan Strait.

Beijing says those actions are aimed at deterring advocates of the island’s formal independence and foreign allies—principally the U.S.—from interfering, more than 70 years after the sides split amid civil war. Surveys routinely show that Taiwan’s 23 million people reject China’s assertions that the island is a Chinese province that has strayed and must be brought under Beijing’s control.

Pelosi, long a sharp critic of Beijing, is second in line to the White House. She is viewed as a Biden proxy by China, which demands members of Congress follow the commitments made by previous administrations.

Taiwan is among the few issues that enjoys broad bipartisan support among lawmakers and within the administration, with Biden stating earlier this year that the U.S. would defend Taiwan if it came under attack.

U.S. law requires Washington provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and treat all threats to the island as matters of “grave concern,” but remains ambiguous on whether it would commit forces in response to an attack from China.

 

Though the sides lack formal diplomatic ties, the U.S. is Taiwan’s chief provider of outside defense assistance and political support, in a reflection of its desire to limit China’s growing influence and maintain a robust American presence in the Western Pacific.

During a visit to Indonesia on Sunday, U.S. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Chinese military has become significantly more aggressive and dangerous over the past five years.

Milley’s Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng, told him in a call earlier this month that Beijing had “no room for compromise” on issues such as Taiwan.

China’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it will take “resolute and strong measures,” but has not specified actions it would take in response to a visit to Taiwan by Pelosi, who would be the highest-ranking elected official to visit Taiwan since 1997. Speculation has centered on a new round of threatening military exercises or even an attempt to prevent Pelosi’s plane from landing by declaring a no-fly zone over Taiwan.

German business confidence has dropped to its lowest level since the early months of the pandemic amid fears a cut-off in Russian gas supplies could push Europe’s largest economy into a downturn.

The Ifo Institute’s gauge of expectations fell to 80.3 in July from 85.8 in June – a much deeper decline than forecast. An index of current conditions also dropped.

Clemens Fuest, Ifo President, said: “Germany is on the brink of a recession. High energy prices and the threat of gas shortages are weighing on the economy. Companies are expecting significantly worse business activity in the coming months.”

The report reflects mounting gloom in Germany, which is also grappling with rampant inflation and supply chain troubles exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

A gauge of private-sector activity by S&P Global last week showed the economy began contracting in July for the first time this year.

Factory orders weaken - but cost pressure ease

UK manufacturers have reported a weakening of demand over the last three months. On the plus side, though, they said inflation is showing signs of peaking.

The latest survey of the sector by the CBI showed order books growing at their slowest pace in 15 months. An index of output expectations fell to the lowest since January 2021.

Businesses are still deeply pessimistic as fears about a global recession mounted.

However, the pressure from soaring raw material prices appears to be easing, with average costs per unit of output rising less quickly than in the quarter to April.

Ukraine downgraded by Fitch as it begins 'default-like' process

Ukraine has been downgraded by Fitch Ratings after the country began the formal process to defer payments on its external bonds and restructure $22.8bn (£18.9bn) in sovereign debt.

The country’s credit score was lowered to C from CCC by Fitch, which said the Government’s request to postpone foreign-debt payments constitutes a “default-like process.”

The rating would be lowered again to RD if the proposal is accepted by creditors – a move that the firm said is likely.

The rating company said: “Even if not accepted, Fitch considers that the risk of missed payments or initiation of an alternative distressed-debt exchange process is high as the Government seeks to preserve liquidity in the face of acute military spending pressure.”

Kyiv filed a formal request last week asking bondholders to agree to a two-year payment freeze and changes to coupons on its so-called GDP warrants by the middle of next month.

The Finance Ministry said it “received explicit indications of support” for the plan from a select group of its biggest debt holders, including BlackRock and Fidelity International.

Beyond a payment delay, Fitch said a broader restructuring of the Government’s commercial debt will also be required, though timing remains uncertain.

The firm expects the war to continue well into next year, leading the economy to contract 33pc this year – a hit that will have long-term effects as the government estimates at least $750bn in reconstruction costs over the next decade.

“If the U.S. is determined to make (a visit) happen, they know China will take unprecedented tough measures and the U.S. must make military preparations,” said Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at Beijing’s Renmin University.

“Expect huffing and puffing, maybe some fire-breathing, military posturing, and perhaps economic punishment of Taiwan,” said Michael Mazza, a defense and China expert at the American Enterprise Institute.

The timing of a Pelosi visit, which could happen sometime in early August, is especially sensitive, hinging on multiple factors. Among them is the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army—the military branch of the ruling Communist Party—which falls on Aug. 1, a date used to stoke nationalism and rally the troops.

Chinese leaders are also under pressure from hardline nationalist forces within the party ranks.

That harkens back to the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1995 and 1996, when China held exercises and launched missiles into waters north and south of the island in response to a U.S. visit by the island’s then-president Lee Teng-hui. The U.S. responded by dispatching two aircraft carrier battle groups to the area, a move that helped spur China’s massive military upgrading in the years since that has radically changed the balance of power in Asia.

Friday, July 22, 2022

Covid Update day Kaka home affairs minister says Coalition put political USA UK Access

 Former President Trump attacked the work of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at a rally supporting several candidates in Arizona on Friday. 

Trump held a rally in Prescott Valley to support his endorsed candidate for governor, Kari Lake, and his endorsed candidate for Senate, Blake Masters. During his speech, he said he was watching the committee’s most recent hearing on Thursday, which focused on Trump’s actions as the riot took place at the Capitol building, and called it a “hoax.” 

Trump also denied testimony that Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, gave to the committee last month. 

Hutchinson said Tony Ornato, Trump’s deputy chief of staff at the time, told her about an incident in the presidential vehicle on Jan. 6 in which Trump became heated when he was told he could not go to the Capitol following his speech at the Ellipse that day. She said Ornato told her that Trump attempted to grab the steering wheel of the vehicle and lunged at a Secret Service agent. 

Hutchinson testified that Robert Engel, the agent that Trump allegedly lunged at, was present when Ornato told her of the incident and Engel did not dispute any details. 

Trump denied Hutchinson’s account, saying he would not have done that and could not physically have. He praised the Secret Service for denying the account. 

Ornato and Engel have said they would be willing to testify to dispute Hutchinson’s testimony on the incident. 

But the House Jan. 6 committee showed additional witnesses at its hearing on Thursday that seem to support Hutchinson’s testimony. 

For 20-year-old Yash Teli, memory is a curse. When he closes his eyes, he can see his father’s bloodied body lying in the street, his throat slit.

Sitting in a room full of mourners on a recent afternoon in Udaipur, India, next to a large photograph of his father that was draped with a garland of roses, he was reminded of the blood. 

 

“I don’t want to remember him like that,” he said as his mother’s wails could be heard from another room. “How will I ever sleep now?”

Udaipur, a city of about 600,000 in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, has been a tinderbox since the gruesome slaying last month of Yash’s father, Kanhaiya Lal Teli, a Hindu tailor. In a video posted online by his attackers, identified by police as two local Muslims, the elder Teli can be seen in his shop measuring a man who then attacks him with a cleaver, joined by the man filming. They later accused the tailor of insulting Islam.

The killing shocked people across India, a majority-Hindu country of 1.4 billion, where religious violence is more often aimed at Muslims amid rising discrimination experts say is fueled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Shamseer Ibrahim, a 36-year-old Muslim activist, said that state endorsement of anti-Muslim violence was damaging the democratic and secular values of India, whose long history of interreligious co-existence has been punctuated by bloody outbreaks of strife.

“Under the Modi regime, the spirit of the Indian Constitution is being diminished,” he said in a phone interview. “A very dangerous future awaits Indian society.”

“I realized that there is no democracy in India. It is ruled by Islamists,” he said in anguish, a statement at odds with the fact that Hindu nationalists are in power. “They don’t have a right to live. Cruel people like them should be killed.”

“Us and them” attitudes are nothing new in India, which has long struggled with religious, ethnic and linguistic divisions. But critics say that under Modi and the BJP, the conflict between Hindus and Muslims — who make up about 14 percent of the population and constitute the third-largest Muslim population in the world — has taken a violent turn toward “us versus them.”

“There are organized forces that are riling prejudices and instigating Hindus against Muslims,” said Apoorvanand, a political commentator and professor of Hindi at the University of Delhi who goes by one name. “The BJP’s entire politics surround this: to divide the nation permanently.”

Modi and his party have not commented in the past when Muslims were killed in communal violence. But after Kanhaiya Lal’s killing, they criticized the government of Rajasthan, which is controlled by the opposition Congress party, saying it was on the way to becoming “a Talibani state.”

“The appeasement of Muslims by Congress has increased the audacity of the jihadis to such an extent that they are openly killing Hindus and threatening the prime minister,” Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, a BJP member of Parliament from Rajasthan, said at a news conference last month.

 
Yash Teli, left, next to his slain father’s photo with a relative at his home in Udaipur this month.Yashraj Sharma

‘They don’t have a right to live’

Yash was in the Udaipur market the evening of June 28 when he got a phone call from his cousin: “They have done it. They killed him.”

India, a regional power growing closer to the United States, had been tense for weeks after two top BJP officials made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad, the ancient founder of Islam, and his wife Aisha. The remarks drew protests across the country and diplomatic outrage from the Muslim world, leading Modi and the BJP to distance themselves from the officials.

Days before he was brutally killed, Kanhaiya Lal, 46, was briefly detained by local police who accused him of “hurting religious sentiments” by expressing support online for the anti-Islamic remarks by the BJP officials. In a second video posted after the killing, his attackers cited his social media comments, which the tailor had later deleted. They also threatened a similar attack against Modi.

Police have identified the assailants as Ghaus Mohammad and Riyaz Akhtari, both residents of Udaipur. The two men are in the custody of the National Investigation Agency, India’s premier anti-terrorism task force, and have been charged under the country’s anti-terrorism law. NBC News was unable to reach their attorneys or ascertain whether they had entered any plea.

DeSantis is yet again raising 2024 rumors with his appearance at the Student Action Summit held by right-wing group Turning Point USA - where former President Donald Trump is slated to speak just a day later.

The governor devoted a significant portion of his address to Republicans' bid to win Congress in November's midterm elections while also hammering Biden for inflation and the border crisis - a decidedly national politics-focused message for an official who has shrugged off White House ambitions but not explicitly ruled them out.

'If we get that red wave in the House and in the Senate, and Republicans have majorities, here's what I think we as voters want to see - we want to see you do something with those majorities,' DeSantis said.

'We want to see you hold [Biden] and his ilk accountable for what they're doing at the southern border.'

He further fueled 2024 buzz by attacking California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is widely seen as a potential Democratic contender should Biden not run again.

'We believe every parent in the state of Florida has a right to send their little kid to elementary school without having radical gender ideology injected into the curriculum. It is totally inappropriate to take some six year old kid and to say, well, "You may have been born a boy, but maybe you're really a girl." That is wrong and may fly in California but it does not fly here in the state of Florida', DeSantis said.

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Sri Lanka Parliament to choose Access Covid Update 2022 Online Natore dhaka Bangladesh

 Towns and farmlands inundated by floods, homes and roads buried by landslides, crops withering under scorching heat, hazmat-suited Covid workers collapsing from heatstroke.

Since summer began, scenes of devastation and misery have been playing out across China as the world's most populous nation grapples with an unrelenting torrent of extreme weather emergencies.
Scientists have been warning for years that the climate crisis would amplify extreme weather, making it deadlier and more frequent. Now, like much of the world, China is reeling from its impact.
 
 
Since the country's rainy season started in May, heavy rainstorms have brought severe flooding and landslides to large swathes of southern China, killing dozens of people, displacing millions and causing economic losses running into billions of yuan.
In June, extreme rainfall broke "historical records" in coastal Fujian province, as well as parts of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. At the same time, a sweltering heat wave began to envelop northern China, pushing temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
That heat wave has now engulfed half the country, affecting more than 900 million people -- or about 64% of the population. All but two northeastern provinces in China have issued high-temperature warnings, with 84 cities issuing their highest-level red alerts last Wednesday.
In recent weeks, a total of 71 national weather stations across China have logged temperatures that smashed historical records. Four cities -- three in the central province of Hebei and one in Yunnan in the southwest -- saw temperatures reaching 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit), according to the National Climate Center.
 
 
The stifling heat has coincided with a surge in Covid cases, making government mandated mass testing all the more excruciating for residents -- including the elderly -- who must wait in long lines under the sun. It has also become a dangerous task for health workers who, as part of the government's 'zero-Covid' policy, are required to spend long hours outdoors covered head to toe in airtight PPE equipment as they administer the tests.

People queue at a Covid testing site in Beijing on June 13.

 
 
Several videos of Covid workers collapsing on the ground from heatstroke have gone viral on social media.
The heat wave has also caused power shortages in some regions and hit the country's crop production, threatening to further push up food prices.
And the worst might be still to come, according to Yao Wenguang, a Ministry of Water Resources official overseeing flood and drought prevention.
"It is predicted that from July to August, there will be more extreme weather events in China, and regional flood conditions and drought conditions will be heavier than usual," Yao told Xinhua News Agency last month.

Counting the costs

China is a "sensitive area" that has been significantly affected by global climate change, with temperatures rising faster than the global average, according to the country's latest Blue Book on Climate Change, published by the China Meteorological Administration last August.
Between 1951 and 2020, China's annual average surface temperature was rising at a pace of 0.26 degrees Celsius per decade, the report said. Sea levels around China's coastlines rose faster than the global average from 1980 to 2020, according to the report.
The changing climate can make extreme weather events -- such as summer floods, which China has grappled with for centuries -- more frequent and intense, said Johnny Chan, an emeritus professor of atmospheric science at the City University of Hong Kong.

 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s dismissal of senior officials is casting an inconvenient light on an issue that the Biden administration has largely ignored since the outbreak of war with Russia: Ukraine’s history of rampant corruption and shaky governance.

As it presses ahead with providing tens of billions of dollars in military, economic and direct financial support aid to Ukraine and encourages its allies to do the same, the Biden administration is now once again grappling with longstanding worries about Ukraine’s suitability as a recipient of massive infusions of American aid.

Those issues, which date back decades and were not an insignificant part of former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, had been largely pushed to the back burner in the immediate run-up to Russia’s invasion and during the first months of the conflict as the U.S. and its partners rallied to Ukraine’s defense.

Yet even as Russian troops were massing near the Ukrainian border last fall, the Biden administration was pushing Zelenskyy to do more to act on corruption — a perennial U.S. demand going back to Ukraine’s early days of independence.

“In all of our relationships, and including in this relationship, we invest not in personalities; we invest in institutions, and, of course, President Zelenskyy has spoken to his rationale for making these personnel shifts,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Monday.

Price declined to comment further on Zelenskyy’s reasoning for the dismissals or address the specifics but said there was no question that Russia has been trying to interfere in Ukraine.

“Moscow has long sought to subvert, to destabilize the Ukrainian government,” Price said. “Ever since Ukraine chose the path of democracy and a Western orientation this has been something that Moscow has sought to subvert.”

Still, in October and then again in December 2021, as the U.S. and others were warning of the increasing potential for a Russian invasion, the Biden administration was calling out Zelenskyy’s government for inaction on corruption that had little or nothing to do with Russia.

Prime Minister and Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has been the face of the government's handling of the economic crisis, will face a hefty challenge after late support swelled for his main rival.

Dullas Alahapperuma, a former government minister and spokesman, was nominated by a breakaway faction of the ruling coalition, and ethnic minority parties also said they’ll support him. Marxist party leader Anura Dissanayake was also expected to run.

The winner will serve the remainder of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s term that ends in 2024. Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned by email last week after protesters furious over the country’s economic collapse stormed his official residence and took over key state buildings.