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 The European Union has agreed to reduce the number of new visas available to Russian citizens, but stopped short of an outright ban on travel to the bloc.

As the war in Ukraine stretches into its seventh month, North Korea is hinting at its interest in sending construction workers to help rebuild Russian-occupied territories in the country’s east.

The idea is openly endorsed by senior Russian officials and diplomats, who foresee a cheap and hard-working workforce that could be thrown into the “most arduous conditions,” a term Russia’s ambassador to North Korea used in a recent interview.

North Korea’s ambassador to Moscow recently met with envoys from two Russia-backed separatist territories in the Donbas region of Ukraine and expressed optimism about cooperation in the “field of labor migration,” citing his country’s easing pandemic border controls.

Again, as I just said, this is just a sad approach at this point because they're trying to not focus on the condition of their campaign right now," Fetterman said. "And when they want to get into a serious conversation and really talk about having a debate, I'd be happy to engage in that. But right now, the fact that they have chosen to have a deeply unserious campaign to just ridicule somebody that is just recovering from a stroke."

Without any followup questions, the "11th Hour" host quickly moved on to other topics. 

 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 24: Stephanie Ruhle, Anchor, MSNBC, speaks onstage during the 2019 Concordia Annual Summit - Day 2 at Grand Hyatt New York on September 24, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Summit) (Photo by Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Summit)

Appearing on "America's Newsroom," Dr. Oz denied claims that his campaign was "making fun" of Fetterman's stroke and went on to knock the Democrat for ducking from the debate. 

"I offered John Fetterman numerous opportunities to explain to me how I can make it easier for him to debate, but at this point, since he's given numerous reasons for not showing up, including the fact he didn't have time in his schedule, I'm of the opinion that he's hiding his radical views because he is the furthest far-left radical candidate at any competitive Senate race this cycle, and he doesn't want those views to be exposed," Oz told co-host Dana Perino.

 Ranger Aerospace, a private equity consolidator and management holding company specializing in aerospace operations and aviation services deals since 1997, marks its twenty-fifth anniversary since inception this year. During September, Ranger is hosting a business reception called "A Celebration About People" to highlight the 25 years milestone. Ranger has built several separate platform companies to over $100 Million revenues each thus far in its colorful 25-year history and has managed as many as 4,250 personnel at 56 airports. Ranger adds value by bringing accomplished leaders to bear on deep operational improvements and aggressive accelerated growth. Ranger focuses heavily on operations, marketing, quality, and people, with a principled "Good to Great" incremental approach to business transformations.

 

RANGER AEROSPACE, founded in 1997, celebrates its 25th anniversary 2022. Press Release on Sept. 1, 2022.

"PEOPLE are the priceless soul of any successful enterprise, and we are proving that every day." -- Steve Townes, CEO

Ranger's latest holdings are ACL Airshop, which provides air cargo products, and services to airlines clients at more than half of the world's Top 50 cargo airports, and InTech Aerospace, which performs MRO and retrofit services on commercial airliner interiors. The pivotal investment in ACL Airshop won the Deal of the Year award for 2016 from M&A Advisor magazine, an international financial publication. In earlier aviation ventures, Ranger Aerospace won similar awards for Deal of the Year in 2009, and Deal of the Decade in 2011 (for the decade ending 2010). Ranger's divestiture of Ranger International Services Group won 3 Deal of the Year awards in 2012 for the sale of that aerospace/defense technical services company to a major international engineering firm.

 Decibel Cannabis Company Inc. (the "Company" or "Decibel") (TSXV: DB) (OTCQB: DBCCF), announces that the Company has determined to postpone its annual general meeting (the "Meeting") of holders of common shares (the "Shareholders") of the Company that was scheduled to be held at 2:00 p.m. (Calgary time) on Thursday, September 1, 2022.

 

Logo (CNW Group/Decibel Cannabis Company Inc.)

The Company is postponing the Meeting in an effort to encourage greater Shareholder participation at the Meeting. To date, the Company has received proxies from just under one-third of the Shareholders with an unusual number of withheld votes compared to prior annual general meetings of the Company. The board of directors of the Company (the "Board") has decided that it is in the best interest of the Company and its Shareholders to postpone the Meeting to allow for a broader level of participation by Shareholders to ensure good corporate governance and to give the Board time to hear any concerns that any Shareholder may have. The new Meeting date will be announced at a later date.

About Decibel

Decibel is uncompromising in the process and craftsmanship needed to deliver the highest quality cannabis products and retail experiences. Decibel has three operating production houses along with its wholly owned retail business, Prairie Records. The Qwest Estate in Creston, BC is a licensed and operating 26,000 square foot cultivation space which produces the widely championed, rare cultivar-focused brands Qwest and Qwest Reserve, which are sold in six provinces across Canada. Thunderchild Cultivation, is a licensed and operating 80,000 square foot indoor cultivation facility in Battleford, SK. The Plant, Decibel's extraction facility, in Calgary, AB has 15,000 square feet of Health Canada licensed extraction and product development space. This production house will fuel the growth of our brands Qwest, Qwest Reserve, Blendcraft, and General Admission, into new and innovative product formats like concentrates, vapes, edibles and beyond.

Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks during a Republican leadership forum at Newtown Athletic Club on May 11, 2022 in Newtown, Pennsylvania.  (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Despite polling indicating a Fetterman lead, Dr. Oz said he is confident he will prevail as issues like the border crisis and fentanyl epidemic ravage communities.

"Pennsylvanians appreciate how far left radical John Fetterman is, that doesn't align with our values," Oz said. "That's not what people want in Pennsylvania. They want folks who can understand the values of all Pennsylvanians and protect people accordingly. That's not what John Fetterman is about."

"We cannot afford John Fetterman," he continued. 

The talks came after North Korea in July became the only nation aside from Russia and Syria to recognize the independence of the territories, Donetsk and Luhansk, further aligning with Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.

EU foreign ministers decided Wednesday to fully suspend a visa facilitation agreement between the European Union and Russia that gives Russians preferential treatment when applying for an EU visa. The measure is part of the bloc's wide-ranging package of sanctions imposed on Russia over its war on Ukraine.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in a news conference following the ministerial meeting in Prague that the decision "will significantly reduce the number of new visas issued by the EU member states" given that the process would become more complicated and will take longer.

 

The agreement will still need to be approved by all member states at the European Council, the EU body that is comprised of heads of states and governments.

Borrell said the measure was necessary because there has been a "substantial increase on border crossings from Russia in neighboring states" since mid-July, which has become "a security risk for these states."

"We have seen many Russians traveling for leisure and shopping as if no war was raging in Ukraine," Borrell said. "It cannot be business as usual," he added.

Visas were already restricted to some categories of Russian nationals and many Russian officials and prominent figures close to the Kremlin have been banned from entering the bloc.

The agreement to suspend the visa facilitation program was a compromise after the 27-member bloc failed to introduce a total visa ban, which was proposed by some eastern European, Baltic and Nordic states. The Czech Republic, Latvia and Finland have already taken measures to restrict Russians from traveling into the EU, while Estonia even banned Russians who already had visas from entering the country.

But in a memo circulated ahead of the meeting, France and Germany urged against far-reaching changes to the EU's visa policy, "in order to prevent feeding the Russian narrative and trigger unintended rallying-around-the flag effects and/or estranging future generations."

"While understanding the concerns of some Member States in this context, we should not underestimate the transformative power of experiencing life in democratic systems," the memo read.

We cannot afford to appear disunited on such an important thing, which is the people-to-people relations between the Russian society and the European people," Borrell said, adding that the EU's visa policies "should reflect that and continue to allow for people-to-people contacts in the EU with Russian nationals not linked to the Russian government."

In a tweet on Wednesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had met with Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra in Prague and thanked him "for the principled stance on the need to restrict travel of Russians to the EU."

But divisions remained over the issue following the meeting.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Wednesday that several member states including his country "have raised their voice" against a blanket visa ban. But Estonia said it and its neighbors would consider forging ahead with their own restrictions.

In a statement, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said that he supported ending the EU's visa facilitation agreement with Russia but that "this alone would not be enough."

"Until we have reached an agreement on how to restrict the entry of Russian nationals to the European Union, Estonia and other countries that share a border with Russia and Belarus will consider a national visa ban or restricting border crossings for Russian nationals with EU visas," Reinsalu said in the statement released on the Foreign Ministry's website.

Moscow had already announced it would retaliate if the EU decided to ban visas for Russian nationals. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists Tuesday that such a move would be a "very serious decision that can be directed against our citizens."

As the war in Ukraine stretches into its seventh month, North Korea is hinting at its interest in sending construction workers to help rebuild Russian-occupied territories in the country’s east.

The idea is openly endorsed by senior Russian officials and diplomats, who foresee a cheap and hard-working workforce that could be thrown into the “most arduous conditions,” a term Russia’s ambassador to North Korea used in a recent interview.

North Korea’s ambassador to Moscow recently met with envoys from two Russia-backed separatist territories in the Donbas region of Ukraine and expressed optimism about cooperation in the “field of labor migration,” citing his country’s easing pandemic border controls.

The talks came after North Korea in July became the only nation aside from Russia and Syria to recognize the independence of the territories, Donetsk and Luhansk, further aligning with Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.

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 The passing of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union and for many the man who restored democracy to then-communist-ruled European nations, was mourned Wednesday as the loss of as a rare leader who changed the world and for a time gave hope for peace among the superpowers.

month, with the rising cost of fuel even more worrying for her winter energy bills.

“I don’t want to end up, like, skeletal… eventually it’s gonna have to stop. But whether I’ll be able to afford to eat by then, I don’t know,” she told CNN in a phone interview.

'Starve or freeze to death': Millions of elderly Brits fear a grim choice this winter as costs spiral© Provided by CNN

Vyonne DeBurgo, 77, says the government has "no clue what it's like to live on the amount of money I have to live on in a week." - Independent Age

The average British household will see its annual energy bill rise to £3,549 (approximately $4,180) from October – a rise of £1,578 ($1,765), an 80% increase – after the country’s energy regulator raised the price cap last week. The price cap sets the maximum amount that energy suppliers can charge for each unit of energy and gas.

It’s a crisis that should be at the forefront of government action. But instead, outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been all but absent, taking two vacations in less than a month. His critics have accused him of washing his hands of the energy crisis and deflecting the blame onto Russia’s war in Ukraine. “We also know that if we’re paying in our energy bills for the evils of Vladimir Putin, the people of Ukraine are paying in their blood,” Johnson said in a visit to Kyiv on August 24.

Meanwhile, Downing Street has said it is up to the next prime minister to introduce any major new spending plans to support those suffering hardship. Two candidates, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, are currently battling to become the next Conservative Party leader, and so prime minister, with results expected on September 5. Only grassroots Conservative Party members, who represent less than 0.3% of the electorate, can vote in the contest. Demographic data suggest they are more likely to be White, male and middle class than the general British population.

And while research shows older people are more likely to vote Conservative, neither candidate has outlined a clear plan on how to tackle a cost-of-living crisis that’s already being felt acutely by many in that age group.

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are final candidates in race to succeed Boris Johnson as UK Prime Minister© Provided by CNN

Conservative Party leadership candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss.

Around 2 million pensioners were already living in poverty prior to the crisis, according to data from the Center for Ageing Better, a charity focused on improving the lives of older people, whose 2022 annual report found that there were more than 200,000 more poor pensioners in 2021 than in the previous year.

Around 44% of people who have reached the current UK state pension age of 66 say it is their main source of income, according to figures from the Money and Pension Service, which is sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions. Most pensioners are on the basic state pension at £141.85 a week (around $170), or about £7,400 ($8,770) a year, with a newer pension introduced in 2016 equal to about £9,600 ($11,376) a year. The state pension rose by 3.1% in April, a figure far below the inflation rate at the time, at 9%. The next increase in state pension will be next April.

“So those people were already struggling, and now we’re in a situation where they will be having an even worse time and many more will have fallen into poverty because of what’s happening,” said Morgan Vine, head of policy and influencing at the charity Independent Age.

People who responded to a survey conducted by Independent Age in June and July painted a dismal picture of their daily life. “I have turned my heating off, I don’t mop my floor as often. I do not vacuum as often, I only wash up if I really have to, I can no longer bake with my grandchildren which breaks my heart,” said one, whose name was not given.

“Holiday a thing of the past, social life a thing of the past, if the costs continue to rise I have no answers, wouldn’t mind work but am 88 no one wants me,” said another respondent, also unnamed.

Such poverty is exacerbating health conditions, with life expectancy also dropping, according to the Center for Ageing Better report, which noted that the number of years older people are spending in good health is also on the decline.

The NHS Confederation, a body representing leaders in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) said this month that fuel poverty in particular is creating a “vicious cycle of healthcare need,” explaining that doctors can treat a patient’s illness but that if the ailment – for example, a chest infection – is caused by cold, damp housing, the cycle of infection will continue when the patient returns home.

It’s a concern that’s on DeBurgo’s mind. She’s not sure how she’ll afford to keep the heat on this winter to manage the symptoms connected to her fibromyalgia and arthritis.

Rather, the driver had just left a brothel in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood, and sheriff's police officers had been watching. What Sgt. Timothy Hannigan and his team really wanted was information.

"How to get in; what do you got to do when you get in? Who do you pay? What do you got to pay? Is there any secret word? Is there a secret text message you've got to send to get in there?" are the questions to which police want answers, Hannigan explained.

The people who are pulled over do talk to officers – and tell them everything, Hannigan said.

 

"Usually, they're nervous, and then, they don't want to get caught up with their wife," Hannigan said. "So we talk to them. We just ask them if they'll cooperate with us, and they do."

Hannigan told Donlon the Sheriff's police had been watching the Bridgeport brothel for two and a half weeks. The next step was to shut it down.

Joining a raid for the first time, was Pamela Nicole Dukes. She joined the Cook County Sheriff's Police Special Victims Unit in January.

But the man who died at age 91 on Tuesday was also reviled by many countrymen who blamed him for the 1991 implosion of the Soviet Union and its diminution as a superpower. The Russian nation that emerged from its Soviet past shrank in size as 15 new nations were created.

The loss of pride and power also eventually led to the rise of Vladimir Putin, who has tried for the past quarter-century to restore Russia to its former glory and beyond.

“After decades of brutal political repression, he embraced democratic reforms. He believed in glasnost and perestroika – openness and restructuring – not as mere slogans, but as the path forward for the people of the Soviet Union after so many years of isolation and deprivation” President Joe Biden said.

Gorbachev won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War but although widely feted abroad, he was a pariah at home. It was unclear how news of his death will be received in Russia amid its nationalist war in Ukraine.

World leaders paid tribute to a man some described as a great and brave leader.

Outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that “in a time of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, his tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all.”

French President Emmanuel Macron described Gorbachev as “a man of peace whose choices opened up a path of liberty for Russians. His commitment to peace in Europe changed our shared history.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called him “a one-of-a kind statesman who changed the course of history” and “did more than any other individual to bring about the peaceful end of the Cold War.”

“The world has lost a towering global leader, committed multilateralist, and tireless advocate for peace,” the U.N. chief said in a statement.

 

 

He added that “these were the acts of a rare leader – one with the imagination to see that a different future was possible and the courage to risk his entire career to achieve it. The result was a safer world and greater freedom for millions of people.”

China's ruling Communist Party will hold its five-yearly congress beginning on Oct. 16, with Xi Jinping poised to secure an historic third leadership term and cement his place as the country's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.

The Politburo announced on Tuesday the start date for the congress, which typically lasts about a week and takes place mostly behind closed doors at the Great Hall of the People on the western side of Tiananmen Square in central Beijing.

Xi, 69, has steadily consolidated power since becoming party general secretary a decade ago, eliminating any known factional opposition to his rule. He is expected to exert largely unchallenged control over key appointments and policy directives at a Congress that many China-watchers liken to a coronation.

Despite headwinds that have buffeted his path to a third term - from a moribund economy, the COVID-19 pandemic and rare public protests to rising frictions with the West and tensions over Taiwan - Xi is poised to secure a mandate to pursue his grand vision for the "rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" for years to come.

Since assuming power, Xi, the son of a communist revolutionary, has strengthened the party and its role across society and eliminated space for dissent.

Under Xi, China has also become far more assertive on the global stage as a leader of the developing world and an alternative to the U.S.-led, post-World War Two order.

"He will take China to an even more Sino-centric approach to policy, particularly foreign policy," said Steve Tsang, director of the University of London's SOAS China Institute. "He will also reinforce the importance of the party leading everything in China, and the party following its leader fully," Tsang said.

Xi's likely ascendancy to a third five-year term, and possibly more, was set in 2018 when he eliminated the limit of two terms for the presidency, a position that is set to be renewed at the annual parliamentary meeting in March.

On Wednesday, the website of the party's official People's Daily posted an infographic highlighting Xi's vision, including one of his signature pronouncements: "Party, government, military, people, education; east, south, west, north, central: the party leads everything."

KEY PERSONNEL

A day after the 20th Party Congress, Xi is expected again to be conferred the roles of General Secretary of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission.

With little change expected in broad policy direction, key outcomes from the Congress will revolve around personnel - who joins Xi on the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) and who replaces Premier Li Keqiang, who is set to retire in March.

Contenders to be premier, a role charged with management of the economy, include Wang Yang, 67, who heads a key a political advisory body, and Hu Chunhua, 59, a vice premier. Both were previously the Communist Party boss of the powerhouse southern province of Guangdong.

Another possibility for the premiership is Chen Min'er, 61, a Xi protege who is party chief of the vast municipality of Chongqing but has never held nationwide office.

The makeup and size of the next PSC, now at seven members, will also be closely watched.

Two current members have reached traditional retirement age, and China-watchers will look for whether the inclusion of any new member reflects a need to accommodate alternative viewpoints, although under Xi the notion of "factions" in Chinese politics appears largely to have become a relic.

"After putting his loyalists into positions of power with this party congress, Xi will have a bigger mandate to push through whatever policies he wants," said Alfred Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

BEYOND THE CONGRESS

After the congress, many in China and globally will watch for Beijing's efforts to stave off a protracted economic downturn, which raises the chance COVID curbs being eased, although a lack of widespread immunity among China's 1.4 billion people and the absence of more effective mRNA vaccines remain constraints.

Beijing's strict "dynamic zero" COVID policy has led to frequent and disruptive lockdowns that have frustrated citizens, battered its economy and made China a global outlier.

Investors will also watch for how Beijing copes with souring relations with the West.

Xi's stated desire to bring Taiwan under Beijing's control will also be in focus during a third term, especially with tensions heightened following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's recent Taipei visit. Taiwan's democratically-elected government strongly rejects China's sovereignty claims.

Since assuming power, Xi has quashed dissent in the once-restive regions of Tibet and Xinjiang and brought Hong Kong to heel with a sweeping national security law.

Few China-watchers expect Beijing to make a military move on Taiwan anytime soon, and there is little sign of preparing society for such a high-risk step and the blowback it would provoke, such as heavy Western sanctions.

But for Xi, successfully resolving the "Taiwan question" would secure his place in Chinese history alongside Mao's.

Daily Mail Australia has been told Victorian prisons have been flooded with Wifi signals over the past two years, with tablets provided to prisoners in an effort to keep the peace and allow inmates to maintain contact with loved ones.

Hope, 26, has been caged for the past 10 years and has another five to serve after initially being placed into juvenile detention for what was supposed to be a maximum of 16 months.

It was May 18, 2012 when Hope was first locked-up and since that day he has spent most of his time caged in isolation cells due to his targeted violence against prison staff.

'When I was 17, most kids were in school trying to get their first kiss. I was at f**king adult prison,' he told Obeda from his prison cell.

Hope had been moved to adult jail after he bashed staff at Parkville Youth Justice Centre, which houses children aged between 15-17 years of age.

Hope's 'chin-check' on a Parkville guard earned him an additional two-and-a-half year stay in an adult jail.

Housed in isolation alongside the likes of Obeda, things went from bad to worse for the young offender.

Due for release in December 2015, Hope, aged just 20, went on a bloody rampage two months before his release date while caged within Barwon Prison, which also houses some of the nation's most violent criminals.

'The screws were just racist c**ts. Just bad, racist f**king scumbags,' Hope claimed.

When his request to be moved back into isolation was rejected by prison management, Hope said he decided 'to go hard on the screws'.

'Bashed the whole unit and got 10 years for it,' Hope said.

Stuck again in isolation, Hope had yet another nine months added to his sentence just a couple of years later when he attacked the guards while trying to bash Christopher Dean Binse - aka 'Badness'.

Binse is one of Australia's most infamous criminals, who like Hope has spent most of his life behind bars.

Hope said he was compelled to bash Binse, who claims to have reformed in recent years, because of his persistent ratting on other inmates.

'Apparently he's an alleged underworld figure, biggest dog going around, lagging everyone,' Hope said.

 

Kiron Mala Covid Update Today Online Iraq protests turn deadly after prominent 2022

  

• Ukrainian troops are mounting a long-awaited counteroffensive in the southern region of Kherson, military officials have said. “Today we started offensive actions in various directions, including in the Kherson region,” Ukraine’s southern command spokesperson, Natalia Humeniuk, said on Monday. She declined to provide more details about the new offensive but said Ukraine’s recent strikes on Russia’s southern logistical routes had “unquestionably weakened the enemy”. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, added in a Monday evening address: “If they want to survive, it is time for the Russian military to flee. The occupiers should know: we will oust them to the border. To our border, the line of which has not changed.”

• Kyiv’s forces have broken through Russian defences in several sectors of the frontline near the city of Kherson, a senior adviser to Zelenskiy claimed. Oleksiy Arestovych said Ukrainian forces were also shelling the ferries in the Kherson region that Moscow is using to supply Russian-occupied territory on the west bank of the Dnieper river. A seperate Ukrainian military source told CNN that its forces have taken back four villages near the city of Kherson after breaking through the frontline in three places, with the main “target” being Kherson. The operation began with heavy shelling of Russian positions and the rear, forcing them to flee, the source was quoted as saying.

 

• A Ukrainian barrage of rockets left the Russian-occupied town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region without water or power, officials at the Russian-appointed local authority told Russia’s RIA news agency. The town lies just to the east of the city of Kherson.
• A team of inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog arrived in Kyiv on Monday night en route to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, Rafael Grossi, said a team will visit the plant from Wednesday to Saturday. “We must protect the safety and security of Ukraine’s and Europe’s biggest nuclear facility,” Grossi tweeted. Missiles and shells are frequently hitting areas around the power station and nearby towns, prompting fears it may be too dangerous for the mission to proceed.

• The Kremlin said the IAEA mission was “necessary” but has ruled out vacating the site. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said Ukraine expects the IAEA delegation to “state the facts” regarding the violation of all nuclear safety protocols, adding that Russia “is putting not only Ukraine but also the entire world at threat of risk of a nuclear accident”.

• Russian forces fired at Enerhodar, the city where the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is located, according to Ukraine’s armed forces. Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, also appeared to confirm the reports on his Telegram channel alongside a video of firefighters dousing burning cars.

• Russia is struggling to find more soldiers to fight in Ukraine and has expanded recruitment efforts by eliminating the upper age limit and by tapping into prisons. “Many of these new recruits have been observed as older, unfit and ill-trained,” a Pentagon official told journalists on Monday. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, decreed last week that his army would increase by about 10%, to 1.15 million servicemen, starting January next year.
• Ukrainian officials have warned politicians, experts and opinion leaders not to speculate about the progress of a military counteroffensive. Spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern command, Nataliya Humenyuk, said the operation in Kherson needed “silence” as media attention could affect the results. Ukraine’s presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, added it was necessary to wait for official statements from Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence and army. “I understand our wishes and dreams … But war is not ‘content’. Let’s filter information and work professionally out of respect for our defenders,” he wrote on Telegram.

• Russia has alleged a second Ukrainian was involved in the killing of Darya Dugina. Russia’s FSB security service accused without evidence a second Ukrainian citizen of acquiring fake documents and preparing the car bomb that killed the daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue this month.
• Gas shortages across Europe are likely to last for several winters to come, the chief executive of Shell has said, raising the prospect of continued energy rationing as governments push to develop alternative supplies. Speaking at a press conference in Norway on Monday, Ben van Beurden said the situation could persist for several years.

Warning that Afghanistan faces deepening poverty with 6 million people at risk of famine, the U.N. humanitarian chief on Monday urged donors to restore funding for economic development and immediately provide $770 million to help Afghans get through the winter as the United States argued with Russia and China over who should pay.

Martin Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council that Afghanistan faces multiple crises -- humanitarian, economic, climate, hunger and financial.

Conflict, poverty, climate shocks and food insecurity “have long been a sad reality” in Afghanistan, but he said what makes the current situation “so critical” is the halt to large-scale development aid since the Taliban takeover a year ago.

More than half the Afghan population -- some 24 million people -- need assistance and close to 19 million are facing acute levels of food insecurity, Griffiths said. And “we worry” that the figures will soon become worse because winter weather will send already high fuel and food prices skyrocketing.

But he said $614 million is urgently required to prepare for winter including repairing and upgrading shelters and providing warm clothes and blankets -- and an additional $154 million is needed to preposition food and other supplies before the weather cuts access to certain areas.

Griffiths stressed, however, that “humanitarian aid will never be able to replace the provision of system-wide services to 40 million people across the country.”

The Taliban “have no budget to invest in their own future,” he said, and “it’s clear that some development support needs to be started.”

With more than 70 percent of Afghan’s living in rural areas, Griffiths warned that if agriculture and livestock production aren’t protected “millions of lives and livelihoods will be risked, and the country’s capacity to produce food imperiled.”

He said the country’s banking and liquidity crisis, and the extreme difficulty of international financial transactions must also be tackled.

“The consequences of inaction on both the humanitarian and development fronts will be catastrophic and difficult to reverse,” Griffiths warned.

He claimed they did nothing to build up the Afghan economy and their presence only strengthened the country’s status “as a hotbed of terrorism” and narcotics production and distribution.

Nebenzia also accused the U.S. and its allies of abandoning Afghans to face “ruin, poverty, terrorism, hunger and other challenges.”

“Instead of acknowledging their own mistakes and supporting the reconstruction of the destroyed country,” he said, they blocked Afghan financial resources and disconnected its central bank from SWIFT, the dominant system for global financial transactions.

As for Afghan frozen assets, President Joe Biden announced in February that the $7 billion in the U.S. was being divided -- $3.5 billion for a U.N. trust fund to provide aid to Afghans and $3.5 billion for families of American victims of the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States.

“No country that is serious about containing terrorism in Afghanistan would advocate to give the Taliban instantaneous, unconditional access to billions in assets that belong to the Afghan people,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

To Russia’s claims that Afghanistan’s problems are the fault of the West and not the Taliban, Thomas-Greenfield asked, “What are you doing to help other than rehash the past and criticize others?”

She said Russia has contributed only $2 million to the U.N. humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan and China’s contributions “have been similarly underwhelming.”

“If you want to talk about how Afghanistan needs help, that’s fine. But we humbly suggest you put your money where your mouth is,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

Virginia's ambitious governor, Republican Glenn Youngkin, is under fire from Democrats in that state for his plan to visit Lewiston next week to raise money for Paul LePage's bid to reclaim Maine's governorship for the GOP.

The possible presidential candidate, who has been traveling widely to share the stage with Republicans, "is once again ignoring his duties as governor to stump for extreme candidates across the country," Democratic Party of Virginia Spokesperson Gianni Snidle said Monday.

"If the GOP thinks sending Gov. Youngkin around the country will help them win the election, they're dead wrong," Snidle said. "He's just another far-right cultural warrior who wears a sweater vest to hide his out-of-touch, outdated views."

Youngkin is among the Republicans increasingly touted as a presidential possibility, especially if former President Donald Trump doesn't run. Among the others often named are former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as Trump's ambassador to the United Nations.

 

In a Monday email to supporters, LePage announced the fundraiser as "great news" and hailed Youngkin for shocking the political world to defeat a "an entrenched, former Democrat governor and turning Virginia RED" in last year's election in the Old Dominion.

"Youngkin gave a strong voice to thousands of parents frustrated by a broken school system which ignored scientific data, relied on political theater, and aggressively shut down in-school instruction," LePage added.

"You won't want to miss this incredible campaign fundraiser!" LePage told backers.

The $50-a-person meet-and-greet with Youngkin and LePage is slated for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7, at the Republican headquarters in the Peck Building, 184 Main St.

There is also an hourlong, $500-a-person private reception beforehand for high rollers.

Virginia Democrats on Twitter blasted Youngkin online for tying himself to LePage, a man "who has said blatantly racist things" they found in a collection of the former Maine governor's commentary compiled by the Portland Press Herald.

China has charged dozens of people, including police officials, after a violent attack on female diners at a restaurant reignited debate on gender inequality in the world’s second-largest economy.

A group of 28 people were facing prosecution, officials in the northern province of Hebei said in a statement on Monday. The charges included direct involvement in the attack in Tangshan in June and others related to criminal activities such as running casinos and robbery dating back to 2012.

Snidle said LePage is trying this year "to hide his anti-abortion extremism to trick voters" in the same way that Youngkin did last year.

"Like Youngkin, LePage is no moderate, and given the chance, he would ban abortion in Maine just like Youngkin is trying to do in Virginia," Snidle said.

Eight police officials have also been detained on allegations they provided protection for the criminal activities of the people who carried out the attack and also took bribes, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the graft-fighting agency in Hebei.

People across China were outraged in June, when video clips appeared online showing the men beating female diners at a barbecue restaurant, with one woman getting dragged by her hair outside and then beaten. Nine suspects were arrested afterward, and the government of Tangshan pledged to “severely punish” anyone involved.

Attack on Chinese Women Revives #MeToo Anger Xi Can’t Extinguish

 

That vow did little to quell public anger or silence a renewed debate about gender inequality that the nation’s ruling Communist Party has in the past repeatedly suppressed, viewing it as a vehicle for spreading liberal Western values.

Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau said on Twitter that it is interesting to see Youngkin, "a guy who avoided Trump during his gubernatorial campaign" in Virginia, is now coming to campaign with Maine's version of Trump.

LePage has said in the past that he was "Trump before Trump."

Youngkin has plans to campaign with Republican candidates for governor in other states as well, including Oregon, Kansas and New Mexico.

Over the weekend, Youngkin campaigned in Michigan for Tudor Dixon, the GOP's standard-bearer in its quest to unseat Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

"Helping extreme Republicans is now the governor's full-time job," the Arlington County Democrats in Virginia said in a statement on Twitter.

Habibur Rahman US Consulate urges Usa And Uk Covid Holicong Online Today Feed News 2022

 Ever since Apple launched the App Store, developers big and small have gotten caught up in the company's approval process and had their apps delayed or removed altogether. The popular messaging app Telegram is just the latest, according to the company's CEO Pavel Durov. On August 10th, Durov posted a message to his Telegram channel saying the app's latest update had been stuck in Apple's review process for two weeks without any real word from the company about why it was held up. 

As noted by The Verge, the update was finally released yesterday, and Durov again took to Telegram to discuss what happened. The CEO says that Apple told Telegram that it would have to remove a new feature called Telemoji, which Durov described as "higher quality vector-animated versions of the standard emoji." He included a preview of what they would look like in his post — they're similar to the basic emoji set Apple uses, but with some pretty delightful animations that certainly could help make messaging a little more expressive. 

 

"This is a puzzling move on Apple's behalf, because Telemoji would have brought an entire new dimension to its static low-resolution emoji and would have significantly enriched their ecosystem," Durov wrote in his post. It's not entirely clear how this feature would enrich Apple's overall ecosystem, but it still seems like quite the puzzling thing for Apple to get caught up over, especially since Telegram already has a host of emoji and sticker options that go far beyond the default set found in iOS. Indeed, Durov noted that there are more than 10 new emoji packs in the latest Telegram update, and said the company will take the time to make Telemoji "even more unique and recognizable."

Republicans stepped up calls on Sunday for the release of an FBI affidavit showing the justification for its seizure of documents at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home amid reports of heightened threats against federal law enforcement personnel.

A search warrant released last week after the unprecedented search showed that Trump had 11 sets of classified documents at his home, and that the Justice Department had probable cause to conduct the search based on possible Espionage Act

The U.S. consulate in Tijuana is urging its employees to shelter-in-place until further notice as gang violence intensifies. 

Baja, California officials say 24 cars have been hijacked and burned throughout the state. Fifteen of those incidents happened in Tijuana. 

Mexican cities have seen widespread arson and shootings by drug cartels; however, this is the first time Tijuana was included in the wave of violence.

Tijuana's mayor has called on drug cartels to stop the violence and to stop targeting innocent civilians. 

Mexican government officials say they've detained more than 17 people, seven of whom were from Tijuana.

Dozens of countries, including the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and Turkey, called on Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and the surrounding area in a joint statement on Sunday.

"We urge the Russian Federation to immediately withdraw its military forces and all other [unauthorized] personnel from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, its immediate surroundings, and all of Ukraine so that the operator and the Ukrainian authorities can resume their sovereign responsibilities," the countries said.

Ukraine and Russia have pointed the blame at each for shelling at the facility, which is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

FILE - The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. (Dmytro Smolyenko/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Communication lines, radiation monitoring sensors, a nitrogen-oxygen station and other parts of the plant have been damaged by explosions in recent days.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of "trying to intimidate people in an extremely cynical way."

"Every Russian soldier who either shoots at the plant, or shoots using the plant as cover, must understand that he becomes a special target for our intelligence agents, for our special services, for our army," he said on Saturday evening. He called the tactic "nuclear blackmail."

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said that Russian forces are targeting the part of the plant "where energy supplying [the] south of Ukraine is stored."

advertising business, I need to address the elephant in the room: how the company’s privacy efforts have stymied third-party advertising on its platform. 

Last year, Apple launched a feature called App Tracking Transparency, or ATT. It allows consumers to decide whether apps can track them across other applications and websites—a key way for marketers to gather data and then serve up more relevant ads. Typically, the better the ad, the more money it generates. 

The feature is perfectly reasonable, and I can’t fault Apple for adopting it. Users should be able to choose whether they want to be tracked. And yet, there’s no denying that ATT has created some collateral damage: a major revenue hit for companies big and small.

You may not feel too bad for social media giants like Meta Platforms Inc. and Snap Inc. that have claimed to have lost billions of dollars as a result of Apple’s changes, but smaller developers also say the feature has upended their businesses.

There are still a lot of emoji-related improvements in the latest Telegram update, though. The company says it is launching an "open emoji platform" where anyone can upload their own set of emoji that people who pay for Telegram's premium service can use. If you're not a premium user, you'll still be able to see the customized emoji and test using them in "saved messages" like reminders and notes in the app. The custom emoji can be interactive as well — if you tap on them, you'll get a full-screen animated reaction. 

To make it easier to access all this, the sticker, GIF and emoji panel has been redesigned, with tabs for each of those reaction categories. This makes the iOS keyboard match up with the Android app as well as the web version of Telegram. There are also new privacy settings that let you control who can send you video and voice messages: everyone, contacts or no one. Telegram notes that, like its other privacy settings, you can set "exceptions" so that specific groups or people can "always" or "never" send you voice or video messages. The new update — sans Telemoji — is available now.

With that in mind, what you’re about to read may seem a bit ironic: Apple is going to, over time, significantly expand its own advertising business. 

Let’s begin with the current state of play: Apple’s advertising efforts today consist of display ads inside of its News and Stocks apps, as well as inside the App Store, across the iPhone, iPad and Mac. The App Store also has Google-like search ads. And more recently, Apple put advertising inside of TV+ for its “Friday Night Baseball” deal with Major League Baseball.

Now, a portion of ad revenue from the News app’s Today tab goes to publishers, but it’s not clear how much. Apple also lets publishers advertise within their stories and keep the vast majority of that money. Surprisingly, Today ads also appear if you subscribe to News+ for $10 per month (though it’s a smaller number).

Of course, seeing ads on news websites is commonplace—even behind a paywall—but it’s rare in general for paid services on iOS to have them. And it feels like quite a shift from when Steve Jobs gleefully touted that iCloud would have no ads when he announced it in 2011.

Another ironic detail here is that the company’s advertising system uses data from its other services and your Apple account to decide which ads to serve. That doesn’t feel like a privacy-first policy.

You can disable the ad personalization feature (look under Apple Advertising in the settings app’s Privacy & Security menu), and the company says that 78% of iOS 15 users have done just that. But the system will still leverage data like the identity of your carrier, device type and what you read.

You may ask then, why don’t Apple apps have to ask permission to track users via a pop-up message? That’s what happens with other apps under ATT.

The reason, Apple says, is that the system “does not follow you across apps and websites owned by other companies.” That’s what ATT is designed to prevent. If a third-party app doesn’t track across outside apps and websites, it also doesn’t need to show a pop-up.

This codec will bring more stability and efficiency to the wireless earbuds. Not only that, but this new standard will help AirPods Pro 2 improve the sound quality for voice calls and songs with higher-bitrate support. Although low-energy Bluetooth and LC3 codec don’t promise “Lossless Bluetooth,” they will surely improve sound quality by a lot.

 

Apple Mixed Reality Headset

Rumors about the Apple Mixed Reality Headset have been ramping up for this past year. During Apple’s September event, the company could revive Steve Jobs’s “One More Thing” phrase to tease the company’s upcoming Mixed Reality headset.

Rumors currently expect it to be unveiled as soon as late this year and start being sold in 2023. The Apple September event could be the perfect timing for Apple to disclose to the public that it’s entering a new market.

For example, early this year, the company teased it’s working on a new Mac Pro without further details.

Are iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS 13 Ventura, watchOS 9, and tvOS 16 coming during the Apple September Event?

It depends. According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, iPadOS 16 has been delayed for at least a month, as Apple is aiming for an October release – alongside macOS 13 Ventura. During the Apple September Event, its CEO Tim Cook will likely announce the release date for iOS 16, watchOS 9, and tvOS 16.

You can learn more about these upcoming operating systems in the guides below:

Abu Best Got Goats and sheep deploy their appetites Natore Hotel Bing Cow Ded loss 2022

 Swapping sirens for bells and equipped with voracious appetites, Barcelona’s newest firefighting recruits began delicately picking past hikers and cyclists in the city’s largest public park earlier this year. The four-legged brigade – made up of 290 sheep and goats – had just one task: to munch on as much vegetation as possible.

Their arrival turned Barcelona into one of the latest places to embrace an age-old strategy that’s being revived as officials around the world face off against a rise in extreme wildfires.

While Tehran and Washington are set on pursuing diplomacy, the highly contentious sticking points are:

URANIUM TRACES

    Iran insists the nuclear pact can only be salvaged if the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) drops its claims about Tehran's nuclear work. Washington and other Western powers view Tehran's demand as outside the scope of reviving the deal.

    In June, the U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors overwhelmingly passed a resolution, drafted by the United States, France, Britain and Germany, which criticised Iran for failing to explain uranium traces found at three undeclared sites.

    Iran reacted by further expanding its underground uranium enrichment by installing cascades of more efficient advanced centrifuges and also by removing essentially all the IAEA's monitoring equipment installed under the 2015 deal, a move described by the IAEA chief Rafael Grossi as potentially a "fatal blow" to reviving the agreement. 

    The IAEA has not had access to the data collected by such cameras, which remains with Iran, for more than a year. Grossi said more than 40 IAEA cameras would keep operating as part of the core monitoring in Iran that predates the 2015 deal.

Western powers are increasingly worried Iran is getting closer to being able to sprint towards making a nuclear bomb. Iran denies any such ambition.

"expand [its] comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations" with North Korea, said its President Vladimir Putin.

In a letter sent to his counterpart Kim Jong un on Pyongyang's liberation day, Mr Putin said the move would be in both countries' interests.

In turn, Mr Kim said friendship between both nations had been forged in World War II with victory over Japan.

He added that their "comradely friendship" would grow stronger.

According to a report by North Korean state media outlet KCNA, Mr Putin said the expanded bilateral relations would "conform with the interests of the two countries".

 

In his letter, Mr Kim said the Russia-North Korea friendship "forged in the anti-Japanese war" had been "consolidated and developed century after century".

It added "strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity" between the two countries "had been put on a new high stage, in the common front for frustrating the hostile forces' military threat and provocation".

Pyongyang did not identify the hostile forces by name, but the term has been used repeatedly by North Korea to refer to the US and its allies.

The Soviet Union was once a major ally of North Korea, offering economic co-operation, cultural exchanges and aid.

But the relationship suffered since the collapse of the Iron Curtain, only gradually picking up somewhat after Russia's gradual estrangement from the West since the early 2000s.

In July, North Korea was one of the few countries to officially recognise two Russian-backed separatist states in eastern Ukraine, after Russia signed a decree declaring them as independent.

In retaliation, Ukraine, which is fighting off a Russian invasion of its territory, cut off all diplomatic ties with Pyongyang.

The idea is simple: wildfire-prone areas are handed over to grazing animals, who chomp and trample over dry vegetation that could otherwise accumulate as fuel for fires. Whether the animals are semi-wild or overseen by a shepherd who is usually compensated for their efforts, a job well done usually leaves behind a landscape dotted with open spaces that can act as firebreaks.

Controlled grazing begins on the Barcelona side of the Collserola natural park. Photograph: Ajuntament de Barcelona

It’s a nod to how wildfires were warded off in the past. “We’re not inventing anything new here,” said Guillem Canaleta of the Pau Costa Foundation, a Catalan non-profit that has been implementing the strategy since 2016 in the province of Girona, near Barcelona. “What we’re doing is recovering something that already existed and that was disappearing.

Nearly two months after he was convicted and handed a 30-year prison sentence in New York on charges of federal racketeering and sex- trafficking, disgraced musician R. Kelly is set to return to court for a second federal trial, this time on charges of child pornography and obstruction of justice, in his hometown of Chicago.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in a case that stems from the complaints of several women who allege that Kelly, 55, lured them into sex acts while they were underage. At least two are expected to testify, according to court documents.

 

This trial is expected to resurface accusations brought against Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, 14 years ago in a state trial on charges of child pornography for which he was eventually acquitted.

Illinois federal prosecutors allege that Kelly obstructed justice in that 2008 criminal trial in Cook County, which involved a video recording of Kelly allegedly sexually abusing a minor.

The singer will be tried alongside his former business manager, Derrel McDavid, and associate, Milton “June” Brown, who are both accused of conspiring with Kelly to intimidate and bribe witnesses and cover up evidence in the 2008 trial, according to the federal charges against them.

Salman Rushdie is “on the road to recovery,” his agent confirmed Sunday, two days after the author of “The Satanic Verses” suffered serious injuries in a stabbing at a lecture in upstate New York.

The announcement followed news that the lauded writer was removed from a ventilator Saturday and able to talk. Literary agent Andrew Wylie cautioned that although Rushdie’s “condition is headed in the right direction,” his recovery would be long. Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and in an eye that he was likely to lose, Wylie had previously said.

The Taliban was condemned on Sunday for beating women at a demonstration on the eve of the one-year anniversary of their seizure of power.

As Afghanistan marks a year since the West's chaotic withdrawal from Kabul, fears that the Taliban would roll back women’s rights gained during two decades of Western intervention appear to have been justified.

On Saturday a group of 40 women marched in front of the education building in Kabul chanting "bread, work and freedom".

Some defied the strict dress code by refusing to wear face veils.

Taliban militants dispersed the crowd by firing into the air before chasing after the protesters and beating them with rifle butts.

The women shouted 'bread, work, freedom' as they marched through Afghanistan's capital of Kabul on Saturday CREDIT: Nava Jamshidi

The fighters seized the protesters’ mobile phones and ripped up their banners as they cracked down on the first women’s rally in months.

Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, on Sunday condemned the latest curbs: "The EU is particularly concerned by the fate of Afghan women and girls who have seen their freedoms, rights and access to basic services such as education being systematically denied.

Meanwhile, in Britain, Priti Patel hailed the Government’s much-criticised evacuation operation a year ago.

In a video to mark the first anniversary of Operation Pitting, the Home Secretary described the UK effort as "seismic" and a demonstration of the country's "bond of trust" with those Afghans who had helped UK forces.

Ms Patel said 21,000 refugees had been brought to Britain, adding that the government had stood by the pledges it made to Afghans who stood by Britain for the decades of western occupation of the country.

Her remarks were in stark contrast to a highly critical report earlier this year by the cross-party Foreign Affairs Committee at Westminster.

It criticised Dominic Raab, the former foreign secretary, and the department’s most senior official for not returning from their summer holidays as the Afghan government crumbled.

“Though his life changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty & defiant sense of humour remains intact,” Rushdie’s son Zafar Rushdie said in a statement Sunday that stressed that the author remained in critical condition. The family statement also expressed gratitude for the “audience members who bravely leapt to his defence,” as well as police, doctors and “the outpouring of love and support.”

Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty Saturday to attempted murder and assault charges in what a prosecutor called “a targeted, unprovoked, preplanned attack” at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat center.

The attack was met with global shock and outrage, along with praise for the man who, for more than three decades — including nine years in hiding under the protection of the British government — has weathered death threats and a $3 million bounty on his head over “The Satanic Verses.”

“It’s an attack against his body, his life and against every value that he stood for,” Henry Reese, 73, told The Associated Press. The cofounder of Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum was on stage with Rushdie and suffered a gash to his forehead, bruising and other minor injuries. They had planned to discuss the need for writers’ safety and freedom of expression.

Authors, activists and government officials cited Rushdie’s bravery and longtime championing of free speech in the face of such intimidation. Writer and longtime friend Ian McEwan labeled Rushdie “an inspirational defender of persecuted writers and journalists across the world,” and actor-author Kal Penn called him a role model “for an entire generation of artists, especially many of us in the South Asian diaspora toward whom he’s shown incredible warmth.”

with his insight into humanity, with his unmatched sense for story, with his refusal to be intimidated or silenced — stands for essential, universal ideals,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement Saturday. “Truth. Courage. Resilience. The ability to share ideas without fear.”

Rushdie, who was born in India to a Muslim family and has lived in Britain and the U.S., is known for his surreal and satirical prose, beginning with his Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel “Midnight’s Children,” in which he sharply criticized then-Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Infused with magical realism, 1988′s “The Satanic Verses” drew ire from some Muslims who regarded elements of the novel as blasphemy.

They believed Rushdie insulted the Prophet Muhammad by naming a character Mahound, a medieval corruption of “Muhammad.” The character was a prophet in a city called Jahilia, which in Arabic refers to the time before the advent of Islam on the Arabian Peninsula. Another sequence includes prostitutes that share names with some of Muhammad’s nine wives. The novel also implies that Muhammad, not Allah, may have been the Quran’s real author.