HaLim Via Online Covid Update Public sector strike cripples cash-strapped Lebanon 2022

 arek Younes was once solidly middle class and felt he helped contribute to society as an inspector in the Lebanese government’s consumer protection agency. But the country's economic free-fall has eroded his income and civic pride.

Such worries are coming on top of concerns about inflation and what central banks might do to curb that trend. Higher interest rates tend to work as a minus for share prices.

Shares fell in Tokyo and Hong Kong but rose in other regional markets. U.S. futures edged higher. Oil prices fell.

Japan's technology investor SoftBank Group Corp. dropped more than 4% in Tokyo trading. On Monday it reported a record quarterly loss of $23 billion. A global nose-dive of technology-related issues, such as Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, dragged on its sprawling portfolio of investments.

Analysts monitoring Asian markets said regional tensions also remain a risk, because of the flareup between China and Taiwan after the recent visit of U.S. House Speak Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.

In his desperation, Younes has joined tens of thousands of public sector employees across the country in an open-ended strike that has already lasted for six weeks.

The protest of the civil servants who form the backbone of government signals a further erosion of Lebanon’s public institutions, already struggling to afford their most basic operating costs.

The strike gives a bleak preview of how Lebanon could sink even deeper, should officials continue to delay decisive action on key financial and administrative reforms sought by the International Monetary Fund to make Lebanon's comatose economy viable again.

While polling stations have opened peacefully in most parts of north-eastern Kenya, there are reports of raids and voter intimidation in some areas by al-Shabab Islamist militants.

The region’s proximity to Somalia’s border makes it vulnerable to attack by al-Shabab, notorious for raiding the region’s Garissa University in 2015.

Last night, suspected militants are believed to have attacked villages and settlements in parts of Mandera county along the border.

Communication lines have been cut to the area - where it is thought Arabia town, around 70km (40 miles) east of Mandera town, was targeted.

There have also been reports of militants preventing people from travelling to their respected polling stations in parts of Wajir East, another constituency along the border.

In Qarsa village, residents - who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity - described how militants had ordered passengers onboard a truck ferrying voters to disembark and later set it on fire.

They say the insurgents have been issuing warnings to locals not to take part in the election.

Contacted for comment, Wajir County police commander, Hilary Toroitich, did not pick up the BBC’s calls or respond to text messages.

There are also been reports of incidents that have forced electoral officials to delay despatching voting material to polling stations:

• In Konton village, also Wajir East constituency, shots – thought to be coming from al-Shabab fighters – were being fired from the bush
• In Eldas constituency, west of Wajir town, there are reports of violence as supporters of a parliamentary candidate are said to be blocking electoral officials.

Meanwhile, the protest further disrupted life in Lebanon, with even the most basic government services on hold. Court cases have been delayed. Identity cards, birth certificates and school transcripts are not being issued. Air traffic controllers announced that they would stop working nights in August.

 

Over the past year, public transportation drivers and public school teachers held unsuccessful sporadic strikes and protests, which they hoped would be a wake-up call for government.

“I don’t know how we’re thinking about economic recovery, if you have that many people who were once middle class now living in poverty,” Younes told The Associated Press. “We are extending our hand and making compromises, but the government needs to do so as well and give us some of our rights.”

Many point to decades of corruption and nefarious financial management as a cause for Lebanon’s economic downward spiral, now in its third year. They say a handful of members of Lebanon’s ruling elite caused the world's worst economic crisis since the mid-19th century, with three quarters of the population now considered poor.

The government has not increased wages for public sector workers since the onset of the country’s fiscal crunch in late 2019, during which the Lebanese pound lost over 90% of its value against the dollar. On top of that, food, gasoline and medicine prices are up sharply due to high inflation.

Younes, who heads the Association of Public Administration Employees, said public sector wages once secured a middle class lifestyle at around $1,300 per month. But that value has rapidly plummeted to the equivalent of under $70. In a country of about 6 million people, some 350,000 Lebanese work in the public sector and their salaries account for a huge chunk of the national budget.

 Israeli troops killed two Palestinian gunmen in a shootout Tuesday during an arrest operation in the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, police said.

Palestinian health officials said one person was killed and at least 40 people wounded in the gun battle, a day after a cease-fire ended three days of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli police said forces encircled the home of Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, who they say was wanted for a string of shootings in the West Bank earlier this year. They said al-Nabulsi and another Palestinian militant were killed in a shootout at the scene, and that troops found arms and explosives in his home.

Israel has conducted near nightly arrest raids in the West Bank in recent months as part of a crackdown on Palestinian militant groups, foremost Islamic Jihad, in the aftermath of a string of deadly attacks targeting Israelis earlier this year that left 19 people dead. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops during these arrest raids.

 

Last week, Israel arrested Bassam al-Saadi, a senior Islamic Jihad militant in the West Bank city of Jenin, during one of the nightly operations. The group said it was going “on alert,” and on Friday Israel said it had launched a series of strikes on Islamic Jihad targets in the Gaza Strip in response to an “imminent threat” by the militant group.

During the three days of Gaza fighting, at least 46 Palestinians were killed, including 16 children and four women, and 311 were wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Twelve of those killed were Islamic Jihad militants, one was from a smaller armed group, and two were Hamas-affiliated policemen who were not taking part in the fighting, according to the armed factions.

Israel estimated that a total of 47 Palestinians were killed, including 14 killed by misfired Islamic Jihad rockets. It said 20 militants and seven civilians died in Israeli airstrikes and that it was still investigating six deaths.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians seek it as the heartland of their future state. Israel views the West Bank as the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people, and has constructed dozens of settlements, now home to over 400,000 Israelis.

The Palestinians and much of the international community consider Israel’s West Bank settlements a violation of international law and an obstacle to a peaceful resolution of the decades-long conflict.

pleased to update shareholders on Marvel's equity holding Power One Resources Corp., on its listing application. Power One was wholly owned subsidiary of Marvel Discovery and received its final approvals on the plan of arrangement (Spin-Out) dated April 23, 2021.

As part of the transaction, Marvel Shareholders received 16 million common shares, with Marvel receiving 5 million common shares for transferring ownership of the Serpent River Pecors project (Elliot Lake Ont.), and the Wicheeda project (Prince George, B.C.), to Power One.

Chief Executive Officer Karim Rayani Comments; "We are thrilled to finally move forward on Power One, we believe these projects have tremendous potential. We are in the right place at the right time - the resurgence of Uranium as a clean energy and the growing demand and interest in green and critical elements for a cleaner future is not going away. We have oversubscribed our offering and look forward to reporting back on a final approval date".

Marvel has made great progress to date, and we are now finalizing the response back to TSX.V for listing of Power One's shares. We believe this to be highly advantageous situation for Marvel and its shareholder as this further protects our share capitalization without the expenditures needed to advance these projects. We still hold a sizeable equity stake in Power One and will remain as operator.

South Korea's top diplomat, Park Jin, arrived in the eastern port city of Qingdao on Monday for meetings with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in the first high-level visit to China by President Yoon Suk-yeol's administration.

Park said he will propose joint action plans to strengthen the relationship, which marks its 30th anniversary this year, reinforce strategic communication and discuss the issues of denuclearising North Korea and stabilising global supply chains.

The Yoon administration has been seeking to curb North Korea's weapons tests and bring it back to denuclearisation talks, which have stalled since 2019.

Also high on the agenda is boosting cultural and people-to-people exchanges as well as restarting K-pop exports, which have been effectively banned amid tension over the THAAD U.S. missile defence system stationed in South Korea, Park said.

"I would like to discuss ways to promote communication and exchanges between the younger generations who will carry the future of both countries," Park said on Twitter.

"Considering the global popularity of the Korean wave, I will discuss ways to widely introduce K-pop and cultural content including movies, dramas and games to China."

The talks come amid intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry, and Park is also expected to reassure Beijing about bilateral ties despite stronger ties with Washington and tensions over Taiwan.

Park said before leaving for China on Monday that South Korea's position of respecting one China remains unchanged, but maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is essential to regional security and prosperity.

Both sides also face a potential flare-up over THAAD and Seoul's possible participation in a U.S.-led chip alliance involving Taiwan and Japan, which China opposes.

China argues THAAD's powerful radar could peer into its airspace, and sharply cut trade and cultural imports with South Korea after Seoul announced the system's deployment in 2016, dealing a major blow to bilateral relations.

On January 1^st, 2022, Power One arranged a non-brokered private placement to raise gross proceeds of up to $800,000. Power One closed that offering February 1^st, 2022 and has since increased it taking in $ 1.1 million in subscriptions. Please see

Gazipur fire between Israel and Gaza militants Fast Latesha Corvid Update To Dhaka

 A fragile cease-fire deal to end nearly three days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza held throughout the night and into Monday morning — a sign that the latest round of violence appears to have abated.

The flare-up was the worst fighting between Israel and Gaza militant groups since Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers fought an 11-day war last year, adding to the destruction and misery that have plagued blockaded Gaza for years.

Since Friday, Israeli aircraft had pummeled targets in Gaza while the Iran-backed Palestinian Jihad militant group fired hundreds of rockets at Israel.

As a familiar campaign jingle brings the Kenyan crowd to their feet, Hellen Atieno joins her compatriots and sways to the catchy tune at a political rally in the lakeside city of Kisumu.

Just don't expect the 23-year-old to vote.

The Biden administration’s response to the riot is “political persecution” under which more than 800 people have been arrested and over 200 criminal sentences have been handed out, she said.

The congresswoman added that people who did things that “they shouldn’t have done” should be treated better during their imprisonment, bringing up her visit to jails.

“OK, they got charged for things they shouldn’t have done, OK, that happened, they deserve their day in court, they deserve their due process rights, but honestly, my gosh, what’s happening to these people is so heartbreaking,” she said in the Lindell TV interview.

She added: “I was in that jail, I saw them, it’s so sad. They hadn’t bathed, they didn’t have haircuts, they couldn’t shave because they weren’t vaccinated. They were treated worse if they weren’t vaccinated, but, what kind of country are we?”

The Georgia representative has not given a clear stand on whether she believes Mr Trump’s supporters were involved in the US Capitol riots.

One of the biggest supporters of Mr Trump’s claims that the election declaring Joe Biden the winner was stolen, Ms Greene had sent a text message to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on the day of the violent attack and said that she feared there was an active shooter at the site.

"I have only come to the rally because there is money. I hope there will be something," Atieno told AFP, referring to the widespread Kenyan practice of offering freebies to prospective voters.

Currently without a job, the former fishmonger says she is so fed up with the country's insular political class that she plans to stay home when Kenya votes on August 9 in parliamentary and presidential polls.

 

She is not alone.

The East African economic powerhouse ranks among the world's youngest countries -- three-quarters of Kenyans are aged under 34, according to government figures.

Many have no interest in participating in an electoral process they widely dismiss as corrupt and pointless.

The number of registered young voters has dropped five percent since the 2017 poll, in contrast to over-35s, whose tally has increased, Kenya's election commission announced last month.

Over 22 million Kenyans are eligible to take part in this year's polls, with young people accounting for less than 40 percent of that number, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) said.

- 'A dirty game' -

Politicians have responded with a freebie bonanza, offering cash, umbrellas, shirts, caps and even packets of maize flour -- a dietary staple -- to anyone who attends their rallies.

Over three days of fighting, 43 Palestinians were killed, including 15 children and four women, and 311 were wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Israel said some of the dead were killed by misfired rockets.

Israel on Monday said it was partially reopening crossings into Gaza for humanitarian needs and would fully open them if calm was maintained.

Life for hundreds of thousands of Israelis was disrupted during the violence. Security precautions imposed in recent days on residents of southern Israel were being gradually lifted Monday, the military said.

The violence had threatened to spiral into another all-out war but ended up being contained because Gaza's ruling Hamas group stayed on the sidelines, possibly because it fears Israeli reprisals and undoing economic understandings with Israel, including Israeli work permits for thousands of Gaza residents, that bolster its control over the coastal strip.

Israel and Hamas have fought four wars since the group overran the territory in 2007.

Barely a week after floodwaters swept downtown and left a foot of mud and twisted, gutted buildings along Main Street, an incongruous sight appeared: A flashing sign declaring JR’s Barber Shop “OPEN.”

As National Guard troops patrolled outside and volunteers on backhoes mounded up debris, J.R. Collins stood behind his barber chair, giving a touchup to one of his regulars. Like most in Fleming-Neon, Collins comes from a family built on mining — both his grandfathers worked in coal — and he has stayed in the close-knit town even as the industry shrank and others fled. Those who remain are determined to prove their community is about more than coal.

And they’ve come together to make sure Collins’ barber shop and other businesses reopen amid the devastating floods that have killed more than three dozen in eastern Kentucky.

“They were there with shovels and squeegees and water, and people packing, and kids helping,” Collins said above the din of air conditioning and a dehumidifier in his shop. “It’s good, hard-working people that like to help people out and got each other’s back.”

Fleming-Neon was once two towns: Fleming, a company town founded in the early 1900s by the Elkhorn Coal Corp. for the sole purpose of mining, and Neon, a former logging camp.

Fleming was run by Elkhorn and named for one of its executives. The company issued its own money, and workers used it for rent on company-owned homes and goods at the company store or local businesses. Neon was independent, a free town where U.S. government greenbacks, not company scrip, was legal tender — but it thrived off the glow of coal nearby.

Fleming and Neon prospered along with the company and industry. Dates still seen today on brick storefronts chronicle the boom years.

“We had department stores, we had grocery stores, we had restaurants, we had dry cleaners. We had a theater,” said Susan Polis, Fleming-Neon’s 73-year-old mayor. “You did not have to leave here to have, to get anything.”

 

But as the mines mechanized, the population shrank in Fleming as well as Neon. In the late 1970s, the former rival towns merged under one government in an effort to pool resources, but the bleeding continued.

Today, only about 500 people remain. And on July 28, the waters of Wright Fork rose, threatening further devastation for this valley of people who long extracted riches from the earth. But there’s a spark in Fleming-Neon that, so far, has refused to be extinguished.

A multipurpose center was set to open in a former car dealership about two weeks after the storm hit. Jeff Hawkins, a longtime educator who’s lived here since he was a teenager, said the project, dubbed Neon Lights, would include a performing arts studio, an internet cafe, event space, and an innovation incubator.

Israel launched its operation with a strike Friday on a leader of the Islamic Jihad, saying there were “concrete threats” of an anti-tank missile attack against Israelis in response to the arrest last week of another senior Islamic Jihad member in the West Bank. That arrest came after months of Israeli raids in the West Bank to round up suspects following a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israel.

It killed another Islamic Jihad leader in a strike on Saturday.

“Over these last 72-hours, the United States has worked with officials from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, and others throughout the region to encourage a swift resolution to the conflict,” he said in a statement Sunday.

The U.N. Security Council was to hold an emergency meeting Monday on the violence. China, which holds the council presidency this month, scheduled the session in response to a request from the United Arab Emirates, which represents Arab nations on the council, as well as China, France, Ireland and Norway.

The exercises would include anti-submarine drills, apparently targeting U.S. support for Taiwan in the event of a potential Chinese invasion, according to social media posts from the eastern leadership of China’s ruling Communist Party’s military arm, the People’s Liberation Army.

The military has said the exercises involving missile strikes, warplanes and ship movements crossing the midline of the Taiwan Strait dividing the sides were a response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the self-ruled island last week.

China has ignored calls to calm the tensions, and there was no immediate indication when it would end what amounts to a blockade.

Taiwan’s defense ministry said Sunday it detected a total of 66 aircraft and 14 warships conducting the naval and air exercises. The island has responded by putting its military on alert and deploying ships, planes and other assets to monitor Chinese aircraft, ships and drones that are “simulating attacks on the island of Taiwan and our ships at sea.”

Arbery’s killing on Feb. 23, 2020, became part of a larger national reckoning over racial injustice and killings of unarmed Black people including George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky. Those two cases also resulted in the Justice Department bringing federal charges.

When they return to court Monday in Georgia, McMichael, his father Greg McMichael and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan face possible life sentences after a jury convicted them in February of federal hate crimes, concluding that they violated Arbery’s civil rights and targeted him because of his race. All three men were also found guilty of attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels face additional penalties for using firearms to commit a violent crime.

Whatever punishments they receive in federal court could ultimately prove more symbolic than anything. A state Superior Court judge imposed life sentences for all three men in January for Arbery’s murder, with both McMichaels denied any chance of parole.

All three defendants have remained jailed in coastal Glynn County, in the custody of U.S. marshals, while awaiting sentencing after their federal convictions in January.

Because they were first charged and convicted of murder in a state court, protocol would have them turned them over to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve their life terms in a state prison.

In a court filings last week, both Travis and Greg McMichael asked the judge to instead divert them to a federal prison, saying they won’t be safe in a Georgia prison system that’s the subject of a U.S. Justice Department investigation focused on violence between inmates.

 

 

CTG vidence shows how Kohinur military planned the Rohingya With India adjust 2022

 The discussions are captured in official records seen by Reuters. At one meeting, commanders repeatedly used a racial slur for the Rohingya suggesting they are foreign interlopers: The "Bengalis," one said, had become "too daring." In another meeting, an officer said the Rohingya had grown too numerous.

The commanders agreed to carefully coordinate communications so the army could move "instantly during the crucial time." It was critical, they said, that operations be "unnoticeable" to protect the military's image in the

Net earnings at Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant and media owner, dropped by 50% to $3.40 billion (RMB22.7 billion) in the three months between April and June, the first quarter of its current financial year. Revenues were unchanged at $30.7 billion (RMB206 billion).

Using Alibaba’s preferred non-GAAP methodology for calculating profitability, the quarter’s net earnings still dropped by 30%, from RMB45.1 billion to RMB30.2 or $4.52 billion.

The figures, while not as awful as some analysts had predicted, added to a turbulent and uncomfortable period for an iconic company that was once one of China’s most widely admired enterprises.

“During the past quarter, we actively adapted to changes in the macro environment and remained focused on our long-term strategy by continuing to strengthen our capability for customer value creation,” said Daniel Zhang, Alibaba’s chairman and CEO in a statement on Thursday.

international community.

Images of Toru Kubota, a Japanese journalist detained in Myanmar while covering a protest, are displayed at the Japan Press Club in Tokyo, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. Friends of Kubota gathered at the

BANGKOK -- A Japanese video journalist detained in Myanmar while covering a brief pro-democracy march has been charged with violating a law against spreading false or alarming news, the Southeast Asian country’s military government announced Thursday.

Toru Kubota, a Tokyo-based documentary filmmaker, was arrested Saturday by plainclothes police after taking images of the protest.

The Bank of England has warned that the UK will be plunged into a long recession as it unveiled its biggest interest rate in 27 years.

The central bank said Britain will tumble into recession in the fourth quarter of year, with the downturn lasting through next year. 

GDP is forecast to drop 2.1pc – that's the biggest contraction since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.

It came as the Monetary Policy Committee raised  interest rates by 50 basis points to 1.75pc, marking its sixth consecutive increase and the biggest since 1995.

The Bank also revised its forecasts for inflation to peak above 13pc later this year, with prices remaining elevated throughout 2023. That's an increase from previous forecasts of 11pc.

Here's a more detailed rundown of what's happened from our economics editor Szu Ping Chan, who's reporting now from the Bank of England:

British families face the longest recession since the financial crisis and soaring prices, the Bank of England has warned, as a surge in energy bills will leave households poorer and the economy smaller.

Policymakers raised interest rates by 0.5 percentage points on Thursday to 1.75pc to try to keep a lid on inflation, which is now forecast to climb above 13pc this Autumn.

The Bank's sixth rate rise in a row is the biggest in 27 years, and comes as it warned that price rises were likely to remain in double-digits for the best part of 12 months.

Its latest forecasts showed the UK is expected to start contracting at the end of this year and keep shrinking until the end of 2023.

TWO CHRISES WALK INTO A ROOM — To hear Chris Sununu tell it, the New Hampshire governor endorsed Chris Doughty for Massachusetts governor out of his own “self-interest.”

Sununu wants a Republican to remain in control of Massachusetts so that New Hampshire can keep benefiting from the region’s economic driver. And he definitely doesn’t want the “socialism” he claims Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey would bring to the Bay State.

“All that matters is winning in November,” Sununu told a few dozen Doughty supporters at a fundraiser in Peabody last night. “People say, ‘Well, I’m going to vote for [Geoff] Diehl because, you know, he’s the more, he’s the ultra-conservative and I agree with him on this point.’ Well what’s the frickin’ point if you’re not gonna win in November? Because that guy’s not gonna win.”

Sununu and his team insist that his support for Doughty has nothing to do with the fact that Donald Trump, with whom the New Hampshire governor has a complicated relationship, endorsed Diehl. Or that former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who called for Sununu’s ouster, is advising Diehl’s campaign.

But by picking Doughty over Diehl, Sununu is making clear what he thinks the direction of the GOP should be at a time when the party is warring over whether Trumpism is its past or its future — and as a shrinking cast of Sununu-like characters try to keep the old flame of New England's moderate Republicans alive. The battle continues next week, when South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is expected to come to town to fundraise with Diehl.

This would represent the longest recession – defined as two or more straight quarters of economic decline - since the 2008 financial crisis. It is expected to leave the economy 2.1pc smaller

The moves come as Governor Andrew Bailey grapples with the highest inflation in 40 years – with soaring energy bills sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine compounding the problem – as well as a looming economic slowdown.

He is the latest of about 140 journalists arrested since the military seized power last year from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. More than half have been released, but the media remains under tight restrictions.

A military information office, the Tatmadaw True News Information Team, said in a statement that Kubota was charged with incitement, specifically causing fear, spreading false news, or agitating against a government employee. It carries a penalty of up to three years in prison. Most of Myanmar’s imprisoned journalists were charged under the same law.

Kubota is also charged with violating visa regulations The statement said Kubota arrived in Yangon from Thailand on July 1 with a tourist visa.

Weeks later, the Myanmar military began a brutal crackdown that sent more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh. Ever since, the military has insisted the operation was a legitimate counter-terrorism campaign sparked by attacks by Muslim militants, not a planned program of ethnic cleansing. The country's civilian leader at the time, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, dismissed much of the criticism of the military, saying refugees may have exaggerated abuses and condemnations of the security forces were based on "unsubstantiated narratives."

But official records from the period ahead of and during the expulsion of the Rohingya, like the ones in 2017, paint a different picture.

The records are part of a cache of documents, collected by war crimes investigators and reviewed by Reuters, that reveal discussions and planning around the purges of the Rohingya population and efforts to hide military operations from the international community. The documents show how the military systematically demonized the Muslim minority, created militias that would ultimately take part in operations against the Rohingya, and coordinated their actions with ultranationalist Buddhist monks.

For the past four years, these war crimes investigators have been working secretly to compile evidence they hope can be used to secure convictions in an international criminal court. Documents spanning the period 2013 to 2018 give unprecedented insight into the persecution and purge of the Rohingya from the perspective of the Burmese authorities, especially two "clearance operations" in 2016 and 2017 that expelled about 800,000 people.

The documents were collected by the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), a nonprofit founded by a veteran war crimes investigator and staffed by international criminal lawyers who have worked in Bosnia, Rwanda and Cambodia. Beginning work in 2018, CIJA amassed some 25,000 pages of official documents, many related to the expulsion of the Rohingya, who since fleeing their homes have been languishing in squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh with little hope of returning. Some of the documents relate to military actions against other ethnic groups in Myanmar's borderlands. The group's work has been funded by Western governments.

CIJA allowed Reuters to review many of the documents, which include internal military memos, chain-of-command lists, training manuals, policy papers and audiovisual materials. Some documents contained redactions, which the group said were necessary to protect sources. The organization also asked Reuters not to disclose the location of its office for security reasons.

kachikata Ukraine says is carrying stolen grain Kustiya salma khan Covid Update 2022

 

This frame grab from a video provided on Friday, July 29, 2022, shows A Syrian cargo ship Laodicea docked at a seaport, in Tripoli, north Lebanon. Lebanon appeared Friday to reject claims by the

When Susan Mujawa Ananda heard a deaf man had been shot and wounded in Uganda for breaking a curfew during the pandemic his family said he knew nothing about, she resolved to set up an online television channel for deaf people.

plant sustained a barrage of shelling amid Russian attacks in several regions, Ukraine's presidential office said.

At least four civilians were killed and 10 more wounded over the past 24 hours, with nine Ukrainian regions coming under fire, the office said in its daily update.

Two districts of Mykolaiv, which has been targeted frequently in recent weeks, were shelled.

Russian forces reportedly fired 60 rockets at Nikopol, in the central Dnipropetrovsk region. Some 50 residential buildings were damaged in the city of 107,000 and some projectiles hit power lines, leaving city residents without electricity, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Nikopol is located across the Dnieper river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which was taken over by Russian troops early in the war.

China began its promised military drills in the airspace and waters around Taiwan on Thursday, as the Beijing-claimed island braces for the potential fallout of U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit.

China’s People’s Liberation Army launched several ballistic missiles into waters off northeastern and southwestern Taiwan starting at 1:56 p.m. (1:56 a.m. ET), Taiwan’s military news agency reported, citing the defense ministry. The ministry condemned what it called China’s “irrational actions,” saying they undermined regional peace.

 

About an hour earlier, the PLA began what are believed to be unprecedented live-fire drills in six zones that effectively encircle Taiwan’s main island, which is about 100 miles off the coast of China. The drills were announced shortly after Pelosi arrived in Taiwan late Tuesday night, and are set to last until Sunday.

Chinese state media reported that the exercises had “achieved the expected results.”

"The reason why he was shot ... is because he didn't know what was happening in the country. He didn't know that there was a curfew," Ananda, a sign language interpreter, told Reuters.

Late last year, she teamed up with a deaf friend, Simon Eroku, and after winning a grant they founded SignsTV, which runs news bulletins for deaf people, delivered by deaf people.

Slightly over a million people in Uganda, out of a total population of about 45 million, have a hearing disability and most of them have limited access to TV news due to a lack of sign language services on established channels.

But Beltway strategists in both parties questioned the degree to which it would have a real electoral impact.

The popular view was that people for whom abortion is a pivotal issue already vote in every election — and that the economy would dominate November’s midterms.

Now, that idea looks far more questionable.

On Tuesday, voters in Kansas delivered a seismic shock, handing the pro-choice side a victory in one of the most deep-red states in the nation.

The proposal before the electorate would have stated explicitly that the Kansas constitution confers no right to abortion. It was rejected by about 18 points amid a massive turnout.

An abundance of national polling also shows Democrats’ chances improving in the midterms.

 

The Democratic rise in the polls seems to have commenced in or around late June — at exactly the same time the Supreme Court handed down its decision.

There could be other factors at play, including gas prices having declined from their highest levels. But it seems clear abortion is playing a big part.

On the day of the Supreme Court decision, data and polling site FiveThirtyEight gave Republicans a 53 percent chance of controlling the Senate after the midterms. Now, that has declined to 43 percent.

A Monmouth University poll released Wednesday gave Democrats a seven-point advantage among all adults when respondents were asked which party they would prefer to see control Congress. The last time Monmouth polled that question, in June, the result was a tie.

The RealClearPolitics polling average showed Republicans with a 3.4-point lead over Democrats on the day the Supreme Court ruled. The margin has now dwindled to three-tenths of a point.

Democrats, though they are horrified by the loss of Roe, believe the Supreme Court has sparked a huge backlash — and that their party leaders need to press the political advantage.

“We are at such a tipping point now,” Democratic operative Abigail Collazo told this column. “We have the right message. Our message is aligned with the will of the voters. But where this could go off the rails is if the Democratic Party decides not to put the money behind the groundwork in states where this message can really make the difference.”

Other advocates of abortion rights assert that the Supreme Court decision has made the issue far more politically salient — and to a wider group of voters than ever before.

“A lot of people assumed, I think, that Roe v. Wade would always be the law of the land,” said Sam Lau, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Votes. “What has changed is the direct threat now, and how it is making headlines every day. I think that is going to be a motivating force to bring people to the polls like never before.”

 

Those hopes clearly extend to the White House and congressional leaders.

President Biden asserted on Wednesday that Republicans and others pressing an anti-abortion agenda “don’t have a clue about the power of American women.” He added, “In Kansas, they found out.”

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor that Kansas voters had “sent an unmistakable message to MAGA Republican extremists: back off women’s fundamental rights.”

 

And White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday that the previous 24 hours had seen “a lot of momentum…in our fight to restore Roe.”

In addition to the Kansas vote, Jean-Pierre pointed to the Department of Justice’s decision to sue Idaho over especially onerous restrictions on abortion set to take effect later this month. 

She also noted the president’s signing of an executive order Wednesday designed to make it easier for women to travel out of state to obtain abortions.

 

To be sure, none of this makes it certain either that abortion restrictions can be rolled back or that Democrats can avoid electoral defeat in November.

Anti-abortion activists insist that the issue energizes their side as much as their opponents. They are casting the Kansas defeat as a minor setback in a longer, victorious march.

Meanwhile, Republicans and some independent analysts question whether abortion really has the power to reshape a political landscape otherwise dominated by economic issues.

 

Reacting to Biden’s comments Wednesday, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel released a statement insisting, “Our country is in a recession, Americans can’t afford gas or groceries, and yet all Joe Biden cares about is pushing his radical and unpopular late-term abortion agenda.”

But Democrats like Collazo argue that the supposed division between “social issues” and “kitchen-table issues” is a false dichotomy when abortion access is in such self-evident peril.

“It is a kitchen table issue,” she argued. “People are talking about this in the grocery store, with their loved ones, in their faith communities.”

 

Meanwhile the diminishing band of pro-choice Republicans lament the direction the party has taken.

“At present, the Republican Party seems to be in the thrall of the far-right faction,” said Susan Bevan, a former national co-chairwoman of the now-defunct Republican Majority for Choice, a group that advocated for pro-choice policies within the GOP.

“A Republican Party that was affiliated with limited government and fiscal responsibility has changed to be the party that I see now.”

The new station, which made its first broadcast in April and employs eight staff including four deaf anchors, operates from a studio in a Kampala suburb.

In a typical broadcast on SignsTV Uganda, the news is read by two deaf anchors and simultaneously signed by a sign language interpreter, going slowly to match the anchor's pace, while the screen also carries subtitles.

The deaf man whose story moved Ananda to act, was shot in the leg in a village in northern Uganda in April 2020, by a member of the Local Defence Unit (LDU), a para military force that sometimes operates alongside regular police and the military. His leg later had to be amputated. Police at the time told local media they would investigate. They were not available for new comment on the case.

BEIRUT -- A Syrian ship that Ukraine says is carrying stolen Ukrainian grain has left a Lebanese port after officials in Lebanon allowed it to sail following an investigation, Lebanon’s transport minister tweeted on Thursday.

The Syrian-flagged Laodicea had been anchored at the port of Tripoli since it arrived last Thursday, carrying 10,000 tons of wheat flour and barley. Ukraine says the grain was stolen by Russia, a claim it denies.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian Ambassador to Lebanon Ihor Ostash urged Lebanon not to allow the vessel to leave the port.

A judge on Wednesday said the Laodicea can sail, a day after Lebanon’s prosecutor general decided the ship could leave after an investigation showed it was not carrying stolen Ukrainian grain.

Transport Minister Ali Hamie tweeted that “Syrian-flagged Laodicea is now outside Lebanon's territorial waters.”

It was not immediately clear where the ship is heading but Marine Traffic, a website that monitors vessel traffic and location of ships on seas, showed it moving toward the Syrian coast.

Laodicea's departure is likely to anger Ukraine. Russia’s diplomatic mission in Lebanon praised the move, accusing Ukraine of lying about the cargo and trying to damage relations between Moscow and Beirut.

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the Syrian ship in 2015 for its affiliation with the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad, a close political and military ally to Moscow.

The spat over the Laodicea came as the first grain ship left Ukraine since Russia's invasion in late February. The Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni, carrying 26,000 tons of Ukrainian corn, was passing through Turkey on route to Lebanon.

A Lebanese official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the ship is expected to take about four days to arrive to Lebanon from Istanbul after it was searched.

Kumar Gara Online Covid Update Dangerous Heat and Humidity Set to Smother Help Need

 

• The wave of blistering temperatures is expected to peak Thursday as the National Weather Service issued heat advisories for nearly the entire tri-state area from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. Friday
• Friday is forecast to be the final day of at least 90-degree heat and an approaching front will linger, kicking off a stormy stretch for the New York City area
• Storm chances increase late Friday night, and again Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Severe weather is unlikely, although a handful of heavy downpours are possible

Buckle up for a rollercoaster stretch of weather in the tri-state area.

Out of nowhere people were like ‘yeah this guy punched me in the face,’ ‘yeah this guy hit me,’ ‘this guy hit an old guy,’ ” Malabanan said.

Some of the irate victims then began trying to attack the neutralized suspect, but Malabanan asked them to stop and call the cops instead, according to his narrative.

An initial police investigation revealed that Frazier delivered an “unprovoked” attack to the heads of a 50-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy, according to the NYPD.

He was charged with two counts of assault, according to police, who noted that Frazier did not have a home address.

Samuel Frazier allegedly attacked the heads of a 50-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy, according to the NYPD.

A Brazilian court on Wednesday overturned the convictions of four men who had been found guilty of murder for their roles in a 2013 nightclub fire that killed 242 people.The three-judge panel in Rio Grande do Sul voted 2-1 to invalidate the men's convictions from 2021, which had carried sentences between 18 and 22 years in prison, on the basis that there were technical issues with the jury selection process.

The 2013 fire at the Kiss nightclub in the southern town of Santa Maria started when sparks from a flare lit by the singer of the band "Gurizada Fandangueira" ignited the insulating material of the club's ceiling, releasing lethal fumes and turning the venue into a death trap, a police investigation concluded.

Pyrotechnics are prohibited in enclosed spaces in Brazil.

The probe found the venue had no functioning fire extinguishers, only two doors for evacuating people from an overcrowded dance floor and poor emergency signage.

In addition to the 242 people who died, more than 600 were injured.

In December 2021, two owners of the Kiss night club and two members of the Gurizada Fandangueira band were found guilty of murder and attempted murder of the victims, mostly young university students.

Malabanan, who said he was not interviewed by police because he was late for work, said he believed at least six people were attacked by the unapologetic suspect, who was “playing the victim,” the fighter explained over the phone.

On Sunday, May 22, Daniel Enriquez, 48, a Goldman Sachs researcher, was riding the Q train across the Manhattan Bridge when a man randomly shot and killed him. A suspect, Andrew Abdullah, is now in custody charged with his murder. Griselda Vile, Daniel’s sister, says politicians refuse to admit that their policies are making the city less safe.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed his country's efforts to strengthen ties with Southeast Asian nations at a meeting Thursday with their foreign ministers, which came as Beijing seeks to expand its influence in the region.

The Attorneys General of all 50 states have joined forces in hopes of giving teeth to the seemingly never-ending fight against robocalls. North Carolina AG Josh Stein, Indiana AG Todd Rokita and Ohio AG Dave Yost are leading the formation of the new Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force. In Stein's announcement, he said the group will focus on taking legal action against telecoms, particularly gateway providers, allowing or turning a blind eye to foreign robocalls made to US numbers.

He explained that gateway providers routing foreign phone calls into the US telephone network have the responsibility under the law to ensure the traffic they're bringing in is legal. Stein said that they mostly aren't taking any action to keep robocalls out of the US phone network, though, and they're even intentionally allowing robocall traffic through in return for steady revenue in many cases.

Wang's talks with top diplomats from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were held amid high tensions in the region, following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, which has infuriated Beijing.

The group issued a strong statement earlier in the day, urging both the U.S. and China to show “maximum restraint” in the wake of the visit and “refrain from provocative action.”

China claims the self-governing island of Taiwan as its territory and opposes any engagement by Taiwanese officials with foreign governments.

In his opening remarks, Wang did not mention the situation but instead stressed how China and the ASEAN countries had strengthened cooperation in recent years.

I always wonder, at what point will people begin to care about crime and gun violence with urgency? Will it only be if they are a victim of a crime? Or will they care because others had to face it? What has to happen to get the nation moving? Who has to die in order for change to occur?

Our nation’s virtues of life, liberty and property, as well as morality, have been sacrificed to give way to pandering from elected leaders and virtue signaling instead of solutions.

We as a nation cannot be seen occupying any moral high ground if we leave the most vulnerable members of society perpetually unsafe to avoid hurting the sensitivities of depraved hardened recidivists, marauding our streets at all hours and lashing out with impunity.

My worst fears were realized on May 22, when my brother was executed going to brunch in Manhattan from his wealthy and formerly safe neighborhood, Park Slope.

Growing up Mexican, Sundays were always associated with spending time with the family and going to church. For him to die, for no reason, in the middle of a Sunday morning, was a devastating gut punch and the realization that we are on our own.

“They were walking into me,” Frazier was filmed explaining to Malabanan as he pleaded for mercy on the ground.

“Nah that’s bulls–t bro, you still don’t punch people in the face for no f—ing reason,” the fighter retorted as tourists standing outside the Museum of Ice Cream looked on.

Summer heat and humidity returned to the tri-state with a vengeance mid-week, with temperatures near or above 90 degrees in Central Park to kick off the stretch of sweltering summer weather in New York City this summer.

After a slight dip in humidity briefly alleviated the misery, muggy weather returns Thursday — which may be the worst day the dangerous heat clamps down. Afternoon temperatures will be in the low to mid 90s, though heat index level will make it feel like it's at or above 100 for NYC and New Jersey; other places will still feel like they're in the mid to upper 90s, with the coastline faring the best (though it will still be uncomfortably hot).

With the wave of blistering temperatures expected to peak Thursday, the National Weather Service issued heat advisories for nearly the entire tri-state area, with the exception of the Jersey Shore and pockets of the Hudson Valley. The heat advisory lasts from 11 a.m. Thursday through 8 p.m. Friday.

Additionally, in anticipation of the high temperatures and humidity that awaits the tri-state area, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation issued Wednesday an air quality health advisory for the Big Apple from 11 a.m. through 11 p.m. on Thursday. Check the latest severe weather alerts in your neighborhood.

As the humidity spikes, pushing heat index levels to reach up to 104 for some during the afternoon hours, those levels only compound heat-related risks, so check on vulnerable neighbors and pets if you can.

A mixed martial arts fighter sprang into action to subdue a homeless man that was allegedly attacking people in the heart of Manhattan’s Soho shopping district.

Ro Malabanan, who has a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a yellow belt in judo, was walking to his boxing instructor job last Wednesday morning when he saw Samuel Frazier sucker punch a construction worker, the fighter told The Post.

Malabanan, 44, checked in with the victim before running after the suspect and taking him down from behind, the good Samaritan explained to his Instagram followers.

“My jiu-jitsu instincts just kicked in. I jumped on his back,” Malabanan said. “He tried to swing me off then — but for those of you in the know — a seatbelt position dragged him down to the floor, and I immediately took his back and pinned him to the ground.”

Other alleged victims of Frazier, 28, gathered as Malabanan pinned the accused perp to the sidewalk in front of the Converse flagship store on Broadway, according to third-party footage shared by the fighter.

 

Haripur carrying Ukrainian grain leaves the port ALI Hossain Hamid Master Bangladesh

 President Biden has still to grasp that Taiwan is far more important than Ukraine to the future of American power in the world. Yet the likelihood is growing that, on Biden’s watch, Chinese President Xi Jinping will move on Taiwan, just as Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.

In a forewarning of that, China has recently started claiming that it owns the critical international waterway, the Taiwan Strait. Just as it did earlier in the South China Sea – the strategic corridor between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, through which one-third of global maritime trade passes – Xi’s regime is seeking to advance its expansionism by laying an expansive claim to the Taiwan Strait, which, by connecting the South and East China Seas, serves as an important passage for commercial shipping as well as foreign naval vessels.

The defense of Taiwan has assumed greater significance for international security because three successive U.S. administrations have failed to credibly push back against China’s expansionism in the South China Sea, relying instead on rhetoric or symbolic actions.

Take It To The Limit— DeSantis’ name is showing up in television ads, and mailers and name-checked at every opportunity. Former Secretary of State Laurel Lee, who resigned from her post and then mounted a campaign for Florida’s 15th Congressional District, had pictures of her with the governor in her first television ad. The ad starts out by saying “for Congress, there’s just one candidate trusted by Gov. DeSantis to secure our elections: Laurel Lee.”

Peaceful Easy Feeling— When asked about it, Lee said “it’s part of everyone’s pitch to voters, but in my case it isn’t fiction.”

Take It Easy — Here’s your reminder, however, that DeSantis — who has endorsed 29 school board candidates across the state and made his opinion clear in many key legislative races — has not yet endorsed any Republicans running in several newly created and open congressional seats. He obviously has a keen interest in the outcome since it was DeSantis who pushed for the party to hold congressional debates and even helped with the questions in a couple of them.

 

The Long Run— So far, only one campaign has gotten called out. The governor’s reelection campaign sent a letter to the head of a political committee supporting a Miami-Dade School Board member and complained that a “false representation” had been created in a mailer that DeSantis had endorsed Marta Perez. The governor had already endorsed Perez’s opponent. The DeSantis campaign, in response to several questions from POLITICO, said that “voters shouldn’t be subjected to deceitful tactics that create a faux appearance of an endorsement.” Meanwhile, GOP voters may need to read the fine print ahead of the primary.

Biden, rather than working to deter and thwart a possible Chinese attack on Taiwan, is seeking to shield his tentative rapprochement with China, which has been forged through a series of virtual meetings with Xi and by offering Beijing important concessions. This explains why Biden publicly pushed back against a Taiwan visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

It is important to remember that, much before Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden had begun to ease pressure on China. He effectively let Xi’s regime off the hook for both covering up COVID-19’s origins and failing to meet its commitments under the 2020 “phase one” trade deal with Washington. Biden also dropped fraud charges against the daughter of the founder of the military-linked Chinese tech giant Huawei. U.S. sanctions over China’s Muslim gulag remain essentially symbolic.

And now Biden is planning to roll back tariffs on Chinese goods, which will further fuel China’s spiraling trade surplus with America. After swelling by more than 25 percent last year to $396.6 billion, the trade surplus with the U.S. now makes up almost three-quarters of China’s total global surplus. 

The McKinney Fire, which started in the northern Siskiyou county on Friday, has already burnt 21,000 hectares (52,500 acres), the state's fire service said.

At least 2,000 residents as well as trekkers on the Pacific Crest hiking trail have left the area. An unknown number of homes have been destroyed.

It was still 0% contained on Monday morning, the fire service reported.

McKinney Fire is burning in the Klamath National Forest, near the border with Oregon. Some 650 firefighters are battling the flames in punishing heat, the Los Angeles Times reports.

A red flag warning indicating the threat of dangerous fire conditions is in place, as California suffers from persistent drought conditions.

A state of emergency was declared in Siskiyou county on Saturday, after homes were destroyed and infrastructure was threatened, state governor Gavin Newsom said.

The fire was "intensified and spread by dry fuels, extreme drought conditions, high temperatures, winds and lightning storms", he added.

Several communities are being threatened, including Yreka and Fort Jones, the US Forest Service said.

'I just saw it explode'

Artist, Harlene Althea Schwander had only moved into her new home near the fire's starting point a month ago, and had not yet unpacked everything. It's now all gone, she told Reuters news agency.

"Three generations of beautiful things, all of my paintings... they're all gone, and I'm very sad," she said.

"When I saw it coming over from the community centre, and I just saw it explode in the dark. I knew the house was gone because I knew right where it was. And the fire department came and told me, 'just leave now,'" she said.

Nikola, a maker of battery- and hydrogen-powered trucks, is acquiring battery supplier Romeo Power in an all-stock deal worth $144 million that it says will ensure stable access to lithium-ion packs as it ramps up electric semi production.

 

There was one piece of good news however - Ms Schwander's daughter-in-law had grabbed her jewellery before they fled.

when, in a bold challenge to industry orthodoxy, one of the world’s biggest food delivery apps announced it didn’t need to rely on gig workers—people who are paid per job and typically receive no benefits like pensions or sick pay—to make its business work. European executives at Grubhub parent company Just Eat Takeaway reveled in being the first major delivery platforms to use employees as couriers. “This is our key point of differentiation,” said Méleyne Rabot, the managing director of Just Eat France. "We are just focused on doing what we believe is right as an organization,” said her UK counterpart, Andrew Kenny. “For us, that is providing couriers with as many benefits and protections as we can.” When Just Eat CEO Jitse Groen got into a Twitter spat with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, he delivered the retort: Pay your workers minimum wage.

Last week, the second quarter earnings season had its busiest week, with 173 S&P 500 companies reporting. The S&P 500 rose almost 4.3% for the week, with earnings supporting stocks. The rapid pace of the second-quarter earnings reports continues this week, with 155 S&P 500 scheduled to release earnings. 56% of S&P 500 companies have reported results so far, with the percentage of companies exceeding consensus earnings and sales estimates improving to 73% and 66%, respectively.

Despite that, Just Eat is now attempting to U-turn on previous promises. Just Eat couriers based across France received an email on July 18 outlining a coming company restructure, which would mean that riders’ status as employees would change. “Just Eat Takeaway has been a major advocate of the salaried delivery model in continental Europe and France. However, we cannot continue to do it alone,” the email read, blaming regulators for not forcing its competitors to stop using gig workers. Riders in Paris can still expect to be paid per hour, but local unions say around 350 couriers working in 26 other French cities, from Lyon to Nantes and Marseille, risk losing their jobs.

The self-propelled feeding systems are advanced and flexible solutions for the automatic feeding of livestock animals. The growing popularity of self-propelled feeding systems in Asia Pacific, mainly in countries such as Japan, China, Australia, and India, is expected to propel the growth of these systems during the forecast period.

For almost two decades, Bout became the world’s most notorious arms dealer, selling weaponry to rogue states, rebel groups and murderous warlords in Africa, Asia and South America.

His notoriety was such that his life helped inspire a Hollywood film, 2005’s Lord of War, starring Nicholas Cage as Yuri Orlov, an arms dealer loosely based on Bout.

Even so, Bout’s origins remained shrouded in mystery. Biographies generally agree that he was born in 1967 in Dushanbe, then the capital of Soviet Tajikistan, close to the border with Afghanistan.

Poultry to witness a greater demand for feeding systems in the coming years

The poultry industry witnesses the largest and the fastest growth in terms of animal production. According to an article by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) 2021, globally, poultry meat is expected to represent 41% of all the protein from meat sources in 2030, which is expected to drive the global consumption of poultry products. Poultry meat production is one of the primary drivers of the feeding systems market. Manufacturers are increasingly directing their investments toward the development of innovative feeding system technologies for the production of various forms of high-quality poultry feed. The various types of systems that are now being used for poultry farms include automatic pan feeders, chain feeders, and round & hanging tube feeders.

French unions say this is an existential moment for the global gig economy, and for the future of platform workers everywhere. If Just Eat is able to backtrack on its commitments in France, they say, it would send a message to other delivery platforms that employing people and giving them benefits doesn’t make financial sense. “That’s one of the reasons we can’t just let Just Eat fire us like this,” says Ludo Rioux, a Just Eat courier in Lyon and a representative for the French union the General Confederation of Labor (CGT).

oards of Phoenix-based Nikola and Romeo agreed to an offer of $0.74 per share, a 34% premium to Romeo’s July 29 closing price, Nikola CEO Mark Russell tells Forbes. Nikola will also provide Romeo with $35 million of funding to stabilize its operations until the deal closes —$15 million in senior secured notes and a battery pack delivery bonus worth up to $20 million. The deal still needs approval from shareholders and is expected to close later this year.

Nikola is Romeo’s main customer so “part of this is defensive, to make sure nothing disruptive happens here,” Russell said. “But the real motivation is strategic: we're taking control of our battery destiny and bringing this in-house.”

Battery supplies are a priority for truck- and automakers pivoting from environmentally unfriendly fuels to electric propulsion amid a worsening climate crisis. The Biden Administration has already announced loan and grant programs intended to spur domestic battery production. Meanwhile, new energy legislation making its way through the Senate could provide significantly more federal funds to aid production of electric and hydrogen vehicles and incentives for consumers and commercial fleet operators to buy them.

“This will have a big impact, and we think that other delivery platforms [such as Gorillas and Getir] will follow Just Eat and turn to self-employed workers,” says Jérémy Graça, a Just Eat courier in Paris and representative of the union Workers’ Force. As the economy slides towards a recession, these unions are fighting to prevent a gig workers’ rights rollback.

Kosovo's government on Monday began issuing extra documents to Serbian citizens crossing into its territory, as Serbs living in the north of the country who oppose the decision blockaded roads leading to two border crossings.

Fourteen years after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, some 50,000 Serbs in the north still use license plates and documents issued by Serbian authorities, refusing to recognize the Pristina government and its institutions.

Following tensions on Sunday and consultations with US and EU ambassadors, the government said it would postpone until September 1 a decision giving local Serbs 60 days to switch to Kosovo license plates and requiring extra documents to be issued at the border to Serbian citizens, including those living in Kosovo without local documents.