Tsarina USA News

Two hearts beat as one: Pulse rates of two people listening to the same story at the same time synchronize - even if they are alone

2021-10-10T07:51:00.001-07:00

Researchers have discovered that when two people are listening to the same story -- whether it be the reading of a book or watching a Netflix series -- their hearts beat to the same rhythm.

The discovery comes from a September paper in Cell Report called 'Conscious processing of narrative stimuli synchronizes heart rate between individuals.'

It claims that even if you're not in the same room with someone, if you're hearing the same story at the same time as another person, your hearts beat in sync.

Lucas Parra, a professor of biomedical engineering at City College of New York and a senior author of the study, said that people's hearts connect through similar stories.

'The fluctuations of our heart rates are not random,' said Parra. 'It's the story that drives the heart. There's an explicit link between people's heart rates and a narrative.'

Researcher Lucas Parra and his team have discovered that when two people are listening to the same story -- whether it be the reading of a book or watching a Netflix series -- their hearts beat to the same rhythm

The discovery comes from a September paper in Cell Report called 'Conscious processing of narrative stimuli synchronizes heart rate between individuals'

The report, which used EKG machines, claims that even if you're not in the same room with someone, if you're hearing the same story at the same time as another person, your hearts beat in sync

Researchers have discovered in the past that people's brains can sync up when they interact in the same place, do the same activities or just agree with one another.

City College conducted four small studies of between 20 to 30 people. In each, their heart rates were monitored by EKG machines while they were asked to see or hear various stories, everything from informational programming to an audiobook of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

The rises and falls of people's heart rates happen together when listening to these narratives, they found.

Parra's team also found that heart rates that sync'd together would retain the information they'd received better.

'Our explanation is that the story drives one's attention,' he said.

The conclusion from Parra's team, which he found 'heartwarming,' was that whether you're listening to a lecture or watching your favorite show with someone, you're together, down to the beat of your heart.

'The novel finding is that heart rate correlation between subjects does not require them to actually be interacting, or even be in the same place,' he added. 'They can be listening to stories all alone at home, and their heart rate fluctuations will align with the story, and thus correlate with other listeners. It's not the interaction between people but the story itself that does the trick.'

Participants were asked to see or hear various stories, everything from informational programming to an audiobook of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Parra, a City College of New York professor, and his team also found that heart rates that sync'd together would retain the information they'd received better

The great class divide: Spending gap between private and state schools DOUBLES as they spend £6,500 more per pupil, study shows

2021-10-07T20:04:00.001-07:00

Private school pupils have almost twice as much money spent on them as their state sector peers, a study shows.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies found the gap has doubled over the last decade.

While private school fees have risen by 23 per cent, per-pupil spending by the Government has fallen by 9 per cent in real terms after inflation.

It meant average private school fees last year were £13,600 while state spending per pupil was around £7,100 – a gap of £6,500. In 2009-10, private school fees were £11,100 on average and state spending was £8,000, a difference of just £3,100.

Private school pupils have almost twice as much money spent on them as their state sector peers, a study shows (stock image)

The widening gap may partially explain why most state schools cannot keep up with the private sector in terms of grades and university admissions. Private schools on average pay higher wages to teachers, pride themselves on small classes and can usually afford better sporting facilities.

Last night, teaching unions seized on the figures to demand more government money for state schools. Geoff Barton, of the heads' union ASCL, said: 'It is outrageous... The funding gap between the two sectors has always been there, but the fact it has widened to such a huge extent does stick in the throat.

'It means that while state schools have been forced to cut back on things like subject choices, pastoral support and extra-curricular activities – and with secondary class sizes rising – independent schools have been able to improve their provision in all these areas.' Private schools in England saw the largest increase in top GCSE and A-level grades this summer compared with other schools.

Campaigners say well resourced fee-paying schools were able to deliver better online learning during the pandemic than the state sector.

Luke Sibieta, author of the report, said: 'Private school fees are now over 90 per cent higher than average spending per student in state schools in England. Fees in private sixth forms are about three times higher than per student funding in state sixth forms.

'Long-standing concerns about inequalities between private and state school pupils, which have come into sharp focus during the pandemic, will not begin to be easily addressed while the sectors enjoy such different levels of resourcing.'

A Department for Education spokesman said: 'This Government is providing the biggest uplift to school funding in a decade – £14billion in total over the three years to 2022-23. This includes a £7.1billion increase in funding for schools by 2022-23, compared to 2019-20'

The report, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, analysed average net private school fees in the UK – minus bursaries and discounts – and state school spending per pupil in England.

The analysis stressed that spending varied between individual schools.

Despite the rise in private school fees over the decade, the number of pupils at the schools has 'hardly budged at all', according to the report.

Private school fees have risen in recent years because of increased demand from the super-rich in countries such as China and Russia.

These families are willing to pay a high price for a British education, but also expect state-of-the-art facilities which are costly to build.

Dad, 20, accused of shaking his four-month-old son to death told police he suffered 'a parent's hell' in days before because baby wouldn't eat or stop crying and 'only wanted to be held'

2021-10-07T19:59:00.007-07:00

A Las Vegas father accused of shaking his baby son to death allegedly told police that he had suffered a 'parent's hell' for 48 hours after the boy refused to eat and wouldn't stop crying.

Mykeal Rangel, 20, took four-month-old Levi to a fire station in an 'unresponsive condition' on September 10, claiming that he had been struggling to eat.

The baby died in hospital six days later, with a doctor telling police that he was 'shaken and beaten to death' and had injuries similar to those of a major vehicle accident, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Rangel now faces a first-degree murder charge. Both Mykeal and the child's mother, Brooke Lehman, face charges of child abuse with severe bodily harm and allowing child abuse with severe bodily harm.

Prosecutors claim Lehman did not intervene to stop the alleged abuse.

In an interview with police, Rangel said he had suffered ' a parent's hell' for 48 hours because the child refused to eat or sleep, and continuously screamed.

He said the baby 'only wanted to be held', according to police documents obtained by KLAS-TV.

Doctors found Levi had suffered injuries including two brain bleeds, rib fractures, blood in the lungs, a possible lacerated spleen and extensive retinal hemorrhages consistent with being shaken.

The Clark County Coroner's Office found the cause of death was abusive head trauma and ruled it as a homicide.

Rangel allegedly admitted to police that he had tightly squeezed Levi 'until he made strained noise', according to the documents.

The young father also claimed that he suffered from insomnia, bipolar disorder and depression and would 'smoke a dab or hit a punching dummy' to relieve stress from the baby.

In a second interview, he admitted to shaking the baby a month earlier, but insisted he had not done so since, the Review-Journal reports.

Las Vegas father Mykeal Rangel, 20, appeared in court on September 27 as he faced first-degree murder charges

Rangel's girlfriend and Levi's mother Brooke Lehman, 20, also appeared in court and faces charges for child abuse with severe bodily harm and allowing child abuse with severe bodily harm

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department released mugshots of couple Mykeal Rangel and Brooke Lehman who were accused of abusing and neglecting their four-month-old son

'The defendant admitted to squeezing the child. He admitted to becoming severely frustrated with the child. He admitted to shaking the child on multiple occasions, Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Jobe said.

'So the proof is evident and the assumption is great that this defendant committed murder.'

Prosecutors also hit out at Levi's mother, and said she had opportunities to intervene and stop the alleged abuse from Rangel.

'She wouldn't help. She wouldn't intervene. She didn't do anything on behalf of this child which is part of the reason why this child is dead,' Jobe said.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Jobe said that Rangel was most likely responsible for the murder based on the evidence given and Lehman should have intervened and stopped the abuse between her boyfriend and her son

The couple's attorneys said that both of them have lived in Las Vegas their entire lives and the lack of evidence provided does not prove their guilt.

The Clark County Department of Family Services also said they have no prior history with the family.

Rangel is being held without bond, as of Tuesday, at the Clark County Detention Center. Lehman was released on a $25,000 bail.

The couple are due back in court on October 26.

What will the £400million divorcee do next? She went from UK beauty queen to billionaire's wife... but Kirsty Bertarelli never gave up her dream of pop stardom, says KATHRYN KNIGHT

2021-10-07T19:59:00.005-07:00

Last July, beauty queen-turned-billionaire Kirsty Bertarelli posted a heartfelt message on Instagram to mark her 20th wedding anniversary.

Alongside a picture of her snuggled in an open-top sports car with her husband, pharmaceuticals heir Ernesto Bertarelli, the former Miss UK-turned-aspiring pop star paid tribute to her other half.

'Twenty years together today!! Taking a little spin with you to mark the occasion of one hell of an amazing journey!' she wrote. 'With you always by my side and me always by yours. I love you so very much!'

And what a journey it has been: as Kirsty herself said in a rare interview several years ago, marriage to Ernesto proved the gateway to an 'amazing' life, showcased on social media posts that are a whirl of exotic locations, exclusive beach clubs, ski trips and alpine sunsets.

But just over a year after posting that emotional message it has emerged that the Bertarellis' journey has come to an end. As the Mail revealed yesterday, the couple have quietly divorced.

Kirsty Bertarelli was awarded it as part of a £400 million divorce settlement that makes her the richest British-born divorcee in history, with a fortune exceeding that of the Queen and J. K. Rowling

Just a few weeks after that heartfelt anniversary message last year, Kirsty posted another picture of a work-in-progress oil painting she was making of her husband

Ms Bertarelli, 50, is now living alone in a breathtaking £52 million mansion on the shores of Lake Geneva. She was awarded it as part of a £400 million divorce settlement that makes her the richest British-born divorcee in history, with a fortune exceeding that of the Queen and J. K. Rowling.

News of the divorce seems to have come as a surprise to many. 'Only a very few were aware of what was going on,' one source close to the couple told the Mail yesterday. 'They have both been very discreet. They still have a lot of respect for each other.'

They were a couple who, until now, seemed to have pulled off the enviable feat of having both phenomenal wealth — they were 14th in this year's Sunday Times Rich List, with an estimated £9.2 billion fortune — and a long-lasting marriage.

It also marks another chapter in the colourful life of Kirsty Bertarelli, whose divorce settlement is a £350 million slush fund, plus that £52 million house in Geneva.

Colourful it may be, but her story is not entirely a tale of rags to riches. Kirsty Roper was born in Staffordshire and her father, along with her uncles, owned one of the world's largest manufacturers of ceramics, Churchill China. It meant Kirsty was raised in some comfort.

'I had a very rural childhood, with a beautiful home and loving parents,' she recalled in an interview eight years ago. 'We had a tennis court and played tennis all the time. We all had horses, although I wasn't as good at riding as my sister.'

She attended the now-defunct private boarding school Howell's in North Wales and gained seven O-levels, intending to study for A-levels until she became ill with bacterial meningitis. Her parents discovered her collapsed on the floor; doctors said if they had come an hour later, she would have died.

Ms Bertarelli , 50, is now living alone in a breathtaking £52 million mansion on the shores of Lake Geneva

News of the divorce seems to have come as a surprise to many. 'Only a very few were aware of what was going on,' one source close to the couple told the Mail yesterday

A year on, she joined a modelling agency in Manchester, which entered her for the Miss UK beauty contest. She won in 1988 and entered the Miss World pageant, where she was placed second runner-up, winning £1,000.

She moved to London, to a mansion flat in Chelsea bought by her parents, and continued modelling in advertisements and for catalogues while pursuing a song-writing career.

Five years later, when her father's company went public, a house in South Kensington and a £3 million trust fund followed, along with a place in the glossy Sloane Set alongside the likes of Elizabeth Hurley and socialite Tamara Beckwith (Kirsty remains close to Tamara to this day).

For two years Kirsty was romantically involved with casino heir Damian Aspinall, living in his Belgravia townhouse. She was subsequently named in his divorce from his first wife Louise, although later she insisted that the duo were separated when they got together.

Then, in 1997, at age 26, she met her future husband Ernesto Bertarelli at a dinner party in a Sardinian villa. He was a catch: six years her senior, handsome, refined and clever — he is a Harvard graduate. He also happened to be very rich, CEO and heir to the pharmaceutical company Serono, then Europe's biggest biotech firm.

Little wonder that Ernesto had his choice of women — but he settled on Kirsty, who said that it was love at first sight for both of them, even if it did take him an agonising two weeks to call after that first meeting. 'There were so many girls wanting to be with him and I think he just found me naively refreshing,' she said.

Recalling the first time they met Kirsty said: 'There were so many girls wanting to be with him and I think he just found me naively refreshing'

He proposed two years later in Mexico with the aid of a mariachi band, and the couple married in July 2000 in Geneva in front of 250 guests. Ernesto's father Fabio had died prematurely in 2018 of cancer, leaving Ernesto the owner of Serono. Six years after their wedding, he sold the company to the German drug maker Merck for £9 billion.

Kirsty was now a member of the elite — although the year of her marriage had also seen her achieve a long-standing personal ambition: after her wedding, a song she had co-written, Black Coffee, went to No 1 in the UK charts. A love song, the lyrics were inspired by Kirsty's feelings for Ernesto and it was originally intended to be released by her as a solo single, only to be given by the record company in London to girl band All Saints.

By the time it achieved success, Kirsty was pregnant with her and Ernesto's daughter, now 20, conceived on the couple's honeymoon in Africa.

The Bertarellis later welcomed two sons, now 17 and 15. Motherhood, alongside Ernesto's sailing obsession, curtailed Kirsty's dreams of pop stardom. Ernesto had set his sights on winning the America's Cup, and the growing family relocated first to New Zealand and then to Spain to help his team, Alinghi, achieve his dream. They succeeded twice, in 2003 and 2007.

From 2008 the couple divided their time between an £8 million estate in Gstaad, a £10 million mansion in Geneva, a mews house in Belgravia and the £100 million yacht Vava II.

It is the largest ever yacht built in the UK and includes a helicopter pad and a swimming pool with a moveable floor to alter the depth.

in 1997, at age 26, Kirsty met her future husband Ernesto Bertarelli at a dinner party in a Sardinian villa. The couple married in July 2000 in Geneva in front of 250 guests

In the year 2000, Kirsty achieved success in the music industry after a song she had co-written, Black Coffee, went to No 1 in the UK charts

The couple had several charitable foundations to their name, promoting conservation interests and projects in Staffordshire. Kirsty also seems to have retained a down-to-earth streak. She remains close to her parents, while her Instagram feed features pictures of baked beans and home-made shepherd's pie alongside the swimming pools and ski chalets.

The couple have also remained hands-on parents: while they had a nanny during the children's early years, Kirsty subsequently eschewed one. 'I don't want one; I didn't have one,' she said in 2015. 'Ernesto and I are always at home, bringing up the kids. Every morning we're preparing breakfast for them, there's pandemonium in the kitchen, alarms going off, who has a rugby match, who has a football match. We cook for them.'

Nonetheless, her musical yearnings never left her and by 2010, she'd signed to Universal records under her alter ego 'Kirsty B' and released her first album. Three more followed. The same year she was the support act for Simply Red frontman Mick Hucknall and, two years on, her single Twilight peaked in the European dance charts for nine weeks.

'I'm not wanting to be the new Rihanna or Lady Gaga. I'm just a singer-songwriter,' she told one journalist. 'I don't think Ernesto is going to stop working and rely on my income quite yet, but it still feels fantastic to make your own money.' Ernesto certainly appeared to support his wife's ambitions, often seen cheering on the sidelines when she performed live.

Motherhood, alongside Ernesto's sailing obsession, curtailed Kirsty's dreams of pop stardom

From 2008 the couple divided their time between an £8 million estate in Gstaad, a £10 million mansion in Geneva, a mews house in Belgravia and the £100 million yacht Vava II

Until recently, theirs seemed to be a happy marriage: just a few weeks after that heartfelt anniversary message last year, Kirsty posted another picture of a work-in-progress oil painting she was making of her husband.

'A little green but gorgeous,' she wrote. Yet just a few months later, in February, she posted a picture on Instagram showing her holding her hand in front of her face minus her wedding ring while on a mountain walk with a girlfriend.

Now it appears that around then, the Bertarellis were thrashing out the terms of their divorce, with Kirsty represented by Baroness Shackleton, the lawyer known as the Steel Magnolia, who represented Prince Charles and Sir Paul McCartney in their divorce cases.

Yet the Bertarelli split is said to have remained civil. 'The truth is that while they were very much in love, Kirsty and Ernesto have always been two quite different people,' a friend told the Mail last night. 'They have just grown apart.

'Kirsty celebrated her 50th birthday this summer and the fact that was on the horizon has focused her mind for a while on what she wants to do with the rest of her life.' Acquaintances wonder if she will renew focus on her musical ambitions.

'The dream to prove herself as a bona fide force to be reckoned with has never left her,' says the friend. 'All she's ever really wanted to do is be a pop star.'

Indeed, as she puts it on her own website: 'I've been writing songs since I was in my teens. But now I am a little older, there is so much more to write about!'

'Playing God on Earth': New doco lifts the lid on Christian diet guru Gwen Shamblin Lara, who died in a plane crash with Tarzan actor husband actor Joe Lara and five others - and her 'cult' church Remnant Fellowship that 'controlled' members

2021-10-07T19:59:00.003-07:00

Is God the secret to losing weight?

For Gwen Shamblin Lara, the answer was yes.

'What I do in this program is to teach people how to stop bowing down to the refrigerator and how to bow back down to Him,' she explained.

Shamblin Lara parlayed her piece of the billion-dollar diet industry into founding a new church called Remnant Fellowship, which has been accused of being a cult and encouraging harsh physical punishment, like hitting with a glue stick, to discipline children. Two church members were sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years for the death of their eight-year-old son, who they forced to stay in a wicker box by binding it with bungee cords.

'How members of Remnant behave is bit like the Handmaid's Tale and Stepford Wives,' Glen Wingerd, whose daughter Delaney joined the church, said in a new HBO Max docuseries.

Terasseee Morris, a former member, said: 'The leadership has say in everything that you do. You don't go on a trip anywhere without their permission. You don't have family come visit you without their permission. You don't go to funerals or weddings of family members without their permission.'

Shamblin Lara and her second husband, actor Joe Lara, died with five other people in a plane crash on May 29, 2021 in Tennessee and may have been en route to a MAGA rally in Florida. Lara, best known for a 1989 TV movie Tarzan in Manhattan and the 1990s Tarzan TV series, is called an 'escort' by a former church member in the series and portrayed as interested in Shamblin Lara's substantial wealth, which critics say was accrued from the Remnant Fellowship Church and its members.

'When he met Gwen, I feel like he won the lottery and he was also cast in her production. She honed in on him, he saw an opportunity in her and it was a match made in Remnant Fellowship heaven,' Natasha Pavlovich, Joe Lara's ex-girlfriend, said in the series. Pavlovich said Lara falsely accused her of sexually assaulting their daughter to prevent them from moving to Chicago.

The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin takes an in-depth look at the controversial church leader and diet guru with towering blond hair – who once said in a deposition: 'When people were in prison camps and ate less food, they lost weight. All of them' – and the Remnant Fellowship, a church based in Brentwood, Tennessee, which continues today under her daughter's leadership.

A church statement, part of which is shown at the end of the docuseries and is available on its website, states: 'Remnant Fellowship categorically denies the absurd, defamatory statements and accusations made in this documentary - yet another Hollywood attack on religion.'

Gwen Shamblin, above, studied nutrition in college and started her Weight Down Workshops in the 1980s. She combined the concept known as 'intuitive eating' - which rejects dieting and the idea that food can be 'good' or 'bad,' and eating when you feel hunger - with Bible study. In 1997, she published a book called The Weight Down Diet. Shamblin and her faith-based diet were a media sensation. In 1999, she incorporated the Remnant Fellowship Church, which is based in Brentwood, Tennessee. In announcing her new church the next year at a convention, Shamblin made the controversial move of rejecting the Holy Trinity

Above, Gwen Shamblin Lara and her second husband Joe Lara, an actor best known for playing Tarzan in a TV movie and series in the late 1980s and in the 1990s. Gwen was married to David Shamblin from 1978 until 2018 and they had two children together, Michael and Elizabeth. She then married Lara the same year. Her divorce from David Shamblin angered many women in the church who were refused the same thing even if there were grounds such as infidelity, according to a new HBO Max docuseries. Natasha Pavlovich, Joe Lara's ex-girlfriend said in the series, The Way Down, that Lara 'dated women that could fulfill his lifestyle needs'

The Remnant Fellowship Church, above, in Brentwood, Tennessee has been accused of being a cult. 'The leadership has say in everything that you do. You don't go on a trip anywhere without their permission. You don't have family come visit you without their permission. You don't go to funerals or weddings of family members without their permission,' Terasseee Morris, a former member, said in a new docuseries called The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin

Above, Brandon and Elizabeth Hannah. Brandon Hannah was one of the seven people, including Gwen Shamblin Lara and Joe Lara, who died in a plane crash on May 29, 2021. According to the Remnant Fellowship Church website, the couple were married in 2003 and have four children together. In the docuseries, The Way Down, former members said that Elizabeth lost a son but it wasn't talked about. Elizabeth now leads Remnant Fellowship. 'I know what I'm called to do. I'd always told my mother if something happens to you, you know I'll do it. You know I'll do it for God. It's not what I want to do but you know I'll do it,' Elizabeth Hannah said in a clip from The Way Down

Gwen Shamblin was raised in the ultra-conservative Protestant Church of Christ, which does not allow women to speak or pray in public, in Tennessee. She studied nutrition in college.

Rev. Rafael Martinez, a cult interventionist, said in the docuseries that Shamblin started to share her wisdom on eating and dieting in the 1980s. Martinez is the director of Spiritwatch Ministries, which does 'Christian countercult outreach,' according to its website.

Above, the cover of Gwen Shamblin's 1997 book, The Weight Down Diet. It sold over 400,000 copies, according to a new docuseries called The Way Down. Gina Graves, who was a member from 1996 to 2012, said on the series there were no restrictions on what you could eat, and you waited for physical hunger and ate until you were satisfied. 'The times that you weren't hungry, you went to God, you prayed. You gave that desire for the food to him'

It is a concept known as 'intuitive eating,' which rejects dieting and the idea that food can be 'good' or 'bad,' and eating when you feel hunger. Martinez said: 'To her, it was divine revelation.'

She started her Weight Down Workshops in the 1980s. By 1997, she published a book called The Weight Down Diet. During the 1990s, there was a slew of books with titles such as What would Jesus eat?, The Divine Diet and Body by God, according to a TV news report shown in the docuseries.

Martinez said there were other Christian diets but she expanded it with Bible study. 'They trusted Gwen Shamblin because they felt, look, she's a church member. She uses the Bible.

'It became quite a runaway success.'

The Weight Down Workshops were held in churches and word of mouth spread, according to a TV news report, to more than 250,000 people in over 14,000 churches in 70 countries.

Morris, the former member, said that people started to come after she incorporated scripture. 'But they would lose some weight and then start to gain it back.'

To figure out why this was happening, Shamblin said she asked God, who told her that people were not being obedient and following Him and his son Jesus Christ, Morris recalled.

'Jesus declared all food clean in Mark 7,' Gina Graves, who was a member from 1996 to 2012, said. She explained that there were no restrictions on what you could eat, and you waited for physical hunger and ate until you were satisfied. 'The times that you weren't hungry, you went to God, you prayed. You gave that desire for the food to him.'

Another member from 2008 to 2017, Helen Byrd said by following this program 'you're going to be right with God because you're going to be thinner.'

Morris said that she started losing weight immediately. 'I mean like within two months, I had lost 27 pounds. So the program itself works and it's simply proportion control.'

'When he met Gwen, I feel like he won the lottery and he was also cast in her production. She honed in on him, he saw an opportunity in her and it was a match made in Remnant Fellowship heaven,' Natasha Pavlovich, Joe Lara's ex-girlfriend, said in The Way Down. Gwen Shamblin and Joe Lara married in 2018. Joe Lara had a pilot's license but in a preliminary report released in June, the National Transportation Safety Board did not name him as the pilot in the plane crash on May 29 in which seven people died, according to The Tennessean

According to The Tennessean: 'A recording of the communication between the control tower and the pilot, captured on LiveATC.com, revealed an alarm going off in the cockpit of the plane seconds before it crashed, suggesting a mechanical failure in the aircraft, which was built in 1982.' LiveATC is a website where you can listen to air traffic control communications from around the world. The plane crashed into Percy Priest Lake, above, in Smyrna, Tennessee

'Remnant Fellowship Church has had strong and dedicated leaders from the very beginning. On May 29, 2021, seven of our founding members and leaders – Gwen and Joe Lara, Brandon Hannah, David and Jennifer Martin and Jonathan and Jessica Walters – perished in a plane crash,' according to the church's website. 'Although this loss was unexpected and deeply felt by all, we are unified in going to the God of all comfort during this time. Our foundation is deeply rooted in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and living each moment to show love for God through our actions. That purpose continues to this day'

Shamblin and Weight Down Diet were a 'massive media hit,' Martinez said. The book sold over 400,000 copies and Shamblin was seen everywhere from 20/20 to Larry King on CNN. She was also going on national tours where people would come onstage and talk about how much weight they lost - 'God has taken 86 pounds off of me' – and hold up their old larger clothes.

'She began to believe that the Weight Down Workshop message was the answer for all the world's evils. She had the truth. Christian perfectionism could only be achieved by following her message,' Rev. Rafael Martinez said.

She realized there needed to be a new church and so Shamblin incorporated the Remnant Fellowship Church in 1999. When she announced her new church at a convention the next year, she made a controversial move and rejected the Holy Trinity. Several churches that once hosted her workshops stopped and many sent back their tapes and books.

'It is extremely unusual to have a religious group in the Christian faith led by a women,' Stuart Watson, an author and investigative journalist, said in the docuseries.

'She was just so passionate for God. She was one of the first woman that I'd ever seen that just loved God and taught you to have a relationship with God,' Teri Phillips, who was a member from 1995 to 2003, said.

Other women in the series also noted that Shamblin taught them to focus on God and how to grow their relationship with Him. 'And it was probably one of the best times of my life, believe it or not,' Byrd said.

The church in wealthy Brentwood, Tennessee opened in 2004. Longtime member Gina Graves said the church had 'nothing to do with Jesus Christ, it was about being thin.

'The overarching theme of everything that she taught ever in there was always being under God's authority, which was her. Everything fell around that and then everything else was about the weight and what you look like.'

Morris, who lost 138 pounds in 18 months, said that she was told to stop eating to lose more weight. If people didn't lose more than two pounds that week, they were instructed to fast. 'The faster you do it, the holier you are,' she said.

Graves said members were constantly told that Shamblin was the voice from God and she shouldn't be questioned.

'She's just playing God on Earth. It's wreaking families. It's wreaking kids. It's giving them eating disorders. It's ruining marriages. It's giving people PTSD, social anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, self-harm. All of these things because of this person that just has to look good in her community,' she said in the docuseries.

Another former member from 2002 to 2009, Rachel Phillips, said that Shamblin went to another level. 'It's nothing about God. It's not been about God in a long time. It's been about Gwen. And she's going to twist and manipulate the Bible into fitting her agenda.'

Shamblin was married from 1978 to 2018 to her first husband, David Shamblin, and they had two children together, Michael and Elizabeth.

In 2018, she married actor Joe Lara, who was then working as a handyman trying to get his country music career off the ground. Her divorce from David Shamblin angered many women in the church who were refused the same thing even if there were grounds such as infidelity.

'My real prayer is that it implodes,' Morris said. 'I almost thought it was going to happen when she married Joe.'

Rev. Rafael Martinez, a cult interventionist, said in the docuseries: 'The Remnant culture is completely devoted to controlling its exposure to the external world.' He noted that the church had childcare and home schooling. Gina Graves, who was a member from 1996 to 2012, said that Gwen Shamblin talked to the media about how Remnant was different, which included obedient children

Above, Josef Smith in an undated image. The eight-year-old died after his parents, Joseph and Sonya Smith, put him a wicker box, Eleanor Odom, assistant district attorney for Cobb County in Georgia who tried the case, said in The Way Down. Josef kept popping up his head so his parents tied up the box with bungee cord so he couldn't get out, she said. 'At the end of the worship service, they didn't hear anything inside the box so they untied the box with the bungee cords and that's when they found Josef nonresponsive.' The EMTS that first responded talked about it being such a bad case, she said, and Josef had injuries pretty much everywhere except for the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet

Above, Joseph and Sonya Smith, members of the Remnant Fellowship Church, were found guilty of murdering their son Josef in February 2007 and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years. The church stood by the couple with a website called the Smiths are Innocent. In their response to HBO on their website, it states: 'From 2003-2007, Remnant Fellowship, Gwen Lara, and several church leaders were thoroughly investigated by a variety of State and Local officials. Despite years of focused investigation, zero evidence was ever found linking the church to child abuse, and no charges were filed against any church leaders in any way'

The docuseries also looks at Natasha Pavlovich's legal fight with Joe Lara for full custody of their daughter. Pavlovich, who is also an actor, said her daughter was not allowed to have friends outside of the church. 'Life for my daughter would be in a capsule and subject to all of their brainwashing. And that's what I'm afraid of.'

Pavlovich said she met Lara in acting class in Los Angeles in 1984. They dated on and off for years and in November 2010, they had a daughter together. They moved to Tennessee so he could pursue country music. In 2015, Pavlovich said that in order to prevent her from taking their daughter to Chicago, Lara 'filed with the police in the children's department that I sexually abused our four-year-old daughter.'

Pavlovich said she paid over $200,000 in legal fees. Lara's attorney also represented other men in the church, according to Rachel Phillips, the former member. She said that Remnant Fellowship is happy to pay those fees to keep children in the church.

The docuseries also interviewed now young adults who grew up in Remnant Fellowship. Autumn Williamson, who was a member from 2008 to 2015, said: 'A few of the youth that I grew up with, they committed suicide. I can very much relate to that. I was definitely going through a really deep depression when I was in Remnant.

'I don't think I lived a normal childhood – truly.'

Graves said that Gwen Shamblin talked to the media about how Remnant Fellowship Church was different, which included obedient children.

Two members, Joseph and Sonya Smith, were convicted of murdering their eight-year-old son Josef Smith in 2007.

He died after his parents put him a wicker box, Eleanor Odom, assistant district attorney for Cobb County in Georgia who tried the case, said in The Way Down. Josef kept popping up his head so his parents tied up the box with bungee cord so he couldn't get out, she said. 'At the end of the worship service, they didn't hear anything inside the box so they untied the box with the bungee cords and that's when they found Josef nonresponsive.'

The EMTS who first responded talked about it being such a bad case, she said, and Josef had injuries pretty much everywhere except for the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet.

Odom said that Josef's death was likely a combination of blunt force trauma – the parents slammed the lid down while he was in the box – and suffocation.

In their response to HBO on their website, the church stated that he 'passed away in 2003 of a staph infection and high fever.

'From 2003-2007, Remnant Fellowship, Gwen Lara, and several church leaders were thoroughly investigated by a variety of State and Local officials. Despite years of focused investigation, zero evidence was ever found linking the church to child abuse, and no charges were filed against any church leaders in any way,' according to the church's statement.

Remnant paid the Smiths' legal fees during their trial, according to the docuseries. The church also has a website called the Smiths are Innocent.

On a tape played during the series, Sonya Smith recounts how she disciplined Josef, then seven, by following a church's leader advice.

'I did exactly what Tedd told me to do to spank him on the back of his thighs, take everything out of his room and locked him in there from Friday until Monday and only left him in the room with his Bible and I just praise God,' she says, according to The Way Down.

Gwen Shamblin then says 'Praise God.' When asked about this, Shamblin denied that she said that and that the recording was tampered with.

'Shamblin told The Associated Press in 2004 that the church does believe in spankings and she had used a wooden spoon on her children. Shamblin said she hadn't advocated glue sticks as punishment but didn't think there was anything wrong with it,' NBC News reported.

Williamson pointed out in the docuseries that Shamblin had a Porsche, a Hummer and mansion and then asked how she has all this money. 'Where is this coming from? From us.

'She is selling a really good game.'

In addition to the workshop and books, there were journals, tote bags and t-shirts to buy.

Watson, the author, noted that Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard said that the best way to make money is to start a religion.

Within Remnant Fellowship, there are real estate and financial planning companies, a service for cars and Exodus industries, which does plumbing, electrical work and air conditioning, Morris said.

Rev. Rafael Martinez said Exodus Industries, which is staffed by members, is the business arm of the church.

Watson said: 'A church hides behind its religious status. It is a black box and you can never see exactly how much is going in or exactly how much is coming out.'

He noted that the people who run the church are the institution and the institution is them.

'The downside is when they stumble, there are a lot of good, well-meaning, gold-hearted people who seriously get hurt.'

Gwen Shamblin Lara's children, Elizabeth and Michael, above. According to former member, Terasseee Morris, Michael is the oldest but did not want to take over as the church's leader. In the docuseries, a former member who uses a pseudonym and is shrouded in the dark, alludes to having an affair with Michael and that he told her he would get so angry he shot at the church. Elizabeth Shamblin Hannah, who lost her husband Brandon in the May 29 plane crash, is now leading Remnant Fellowship

Terassee Morris, who was a member from 2014 to 2017, said in a new docuseries, The Way Down, seen above: 'When Gwen first started I believe she truly wanted to help people. She was so charismatic and the joy on Gwen's face when she would talk about the Lord.' People around the world were drawn to Shamblin and her faith-based diet. She founded a new church called Remnant Fellowship in 1999. When asked in a deposition in May if she doesn't think she's a prophet, Shamblin responded: 'I know that by the world's definition of a prophet, no. But I do believe that the Bible teaches of gifts... years later thinking, well, maybe... God's using me for something but I couldn't categorize exactly where you'd put me'

Chris Packham calls on Royal Family to rewild their estates as he prepares to deliver a 100,000-signature petition to Buckingham Palace alongside leading school strikers

2021-10-07T19:59:00.001-07:00

BBC broadcaster Chris Packham is calling for the Royal Family to rewild their vast estates.

The Springwatch presenter and a group of leading school strikers will tomorrow deliver a 100,000 signature petition directly to Buckingham Palace.

As the Royals own around 1.4 per cent of the UK, an area twice the size of Greater London, he claims this will make a big impact on allowing nature to recover in the UK.

Part of a campaign by pressure group Wild Card, Packham will urge the Royal Family to 'walk the walk' on climate action in their own backyard before they appear as our ambassadors at the crucial COP26 climate talks in Glasgow in November.

Chris Packham and a group of leading school strikers will tomorrow deliver a 100,000 signature petition directly to Buckingham Palace.

The Royals own around 1.4 per cent of the UK, an area twice the size of Greater London, Packham claims this will make a big impact on allowing nature to recover in the UK

Both the Queen and Prince Charles will attend the event.

The petition builds on an open letter sent in June by over 100 leading scientists and celebrities - including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Kate Humble - telling the Royals that NOW is the time to act.

The Wild Card group said that the Royal estates would naturally feature beavers, wolves, bison, wild boar, pine martens and white storks.

The campaign which is organising the event is calling for 50% of the UK to be fully rewilded. With half of England owned by less than 1 per cent of the population the campaign calls on the UK's biggest landowners to act first.

Euston tunnel mob is spared jail: Swampy and eco-activists walk free from court after month-long HS2 protest that cost developers £3.5m

2021-10-06T17:13:00.001-07:00

A group of HS2 protesters who cost developers millions after they dug a series of tunnels close to London's Euston Station have walked free from court.

A judge yesterday threw out charges against the group, including the veteran eco-activist Swampy, over the month-long underground protest.

The demonstrators, part of a group called HS2 Rebellion, were arrested in February after using the 100-foot tunnel system and several treehouses to play a cat-and-mouse game with authorities over the rail link.

The protest is reported to have cost developers £3.5million – with £2.8million spent on enforcement officers to remove the activists from the site.

The trial against Daniel Hooper, 48 – known as 'Swampy' – Dr Larch Maxey, 49, Isla Sandford, 18, Lachlan Sandford, 20, Juliett Stevenson-Clarke, 22 and Scott Breen, 47, started on Tuesday at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court.

A judge yesterday threw out charges against a group of HS2 protesters, including the veteran eco-activist Swampy , over the month-long underground protest near London Euston

But district judge Susan Williams yesterday dismissed the charges of aggravated trespass, saying that at the time of the protest HS2 was not engaged in construction work on the site. A separate charge against Dr Maxey of damage to a mobile phone was also dismissed.

After leaving court, Swampy told The Guardian: 'We shouldn't have been in court in the first place because HS2 shouldn't have been happening.

'Our plan is to stop HS2. Aggravated trespass charges were completely the wrong ones to level against us.'

HS2 contractors were due to start work in Euston Square before the discovery of the secret network of tunnels on January 26 this year. Above: The proposed route

The group initially set up a 'Tree Protection Camp' in Euston Square Gardens last September to protest against the multi-billion-pound project.

It has claimed that the construction of the high-speed rail line between London and Crewe will cause extensive environmental damage.

However HS2 has disputed this, saying that only 43 of the UK's 52,000 ancient woodlands will be affected.

A spokesman for HS2 said: 'The actions of these illegal trespassers put their own lives at risk, as well as the lives of our staff.

'This action was an enormous waste of public money... and we are bitterly disappointed that the court has not found fit to convict these individuals for their dangerous and irresponsible actions.'

Guns, drugs and $143,000 in cash are seized and 20 arrested in massive crackdown on organised crime in Tasmania

2021-10-05T22:25:00.007-07:00

Twenty people are facing criminal charges after illegal guns, drugs and $143,000 in cash were seized in a state and federal police operation in northern Tasmania.

Fifteen raids were conducted across the five-week operation which netted 40 grams of the drug ice, 91 ecstasy tablets and four firearms.

The Tasmania Police and Australian Federal Police operation was set up in late August to investigate organised criminal networks in the Launceston area.

'The community needs to be aware that criminal gangs are not harmless clubs,' Tasmania Police acting deputy commissioner Jonathan Higgins said on Wednesday.

Fifteen raids were conducted across the five-week operation which netted 40 grams of the drug ice, 91 ecstasy tablets and four firearms

'They are well organised criminals who readily resort to violence and intimidation to protect their way of life.'

Charges include trafficking in a controlled substance, dealing in proceeds of crime, aggravated armed robbery and aggravated burglary.

People are also accused of defrauding the Commonwealth of $170,000, breaching a consorting notice, home detention order and bail, plus firearm offences.

'Despite our ongoing commitment to tackling COVID in our community, police and law enforcement agencies remain equally committed to targeting and holding criminals to account,' Mr Higgins said.

AFP Tasmania sergeant Nick Gibson said criminal gangs are highly involved in the importation of illicit drugs and the sale of illegal weapons.

The charges come after two men were caught in late September trying to smuggle more than $4 million worth of the drug ice into Tasmania inside camping gear.

Biden administration warns US personnel to flee if they experience Havana Syndrome symptoms

2021-10-05T22:25:00.005-07:00

The White House recently issued a new warning regarding Havana Syndrome to policy staff at the Pentagon- immediately flee the area and report any experience of pressure, sound or heat in the head.

The new message was delivered at the Pentagon over the past week and proves to diplomats, national security staff and intelligence officers that the Biden administration is taking the reported 'anomalous health incidents' seriously.

New workplace guidelines are just a part of the federal government's plan to respond faster to potential cases, after it was discovered that a quicker response benefits the health of the victim and the investigation.

'We need to believe our personnel who are coming forward,' a senior administration official said according to McClatchy DC. 'People are facing real symptoms. We are very conscious that people are experiencing something very real, and it is having a real negative effect on their health. And we're seeing better health outcomes the sooner we can respond to that.'

The official firmly denied the idea that the syndrome is a 'mass hysteria.' 'The physical effects we've seen in several cases are very, very real.'

Policy staff at the Pentagon were given new strict warnings surrounding Havana Syndrome as the White House works to prove that it is taking the potential threat seriously

The Biden administration has been criticized for its slow response to the growing cases of the 'anomalous health incidents'

A 2018 report to the Trump administration proposes that recordings from the US Embassy in Cuba actually captured native crickets

Just last week a 2018 State Department report, which suggested that the recorded noises linked to the earliest cases of Havana Syndrome were caused by crickets, was declassified.

The report to the Trump administration does not propose that crickets caused the documented medical symptoms of the mysterious affliction, which more recent research blames on microwave weapons.

The White House's new guidelines come as the Biden administration has been condemned for the slow pace of the State Department's responses to reports of Havana Syndrome.

Just last month, Ambassador Pamela Spratlen, who was appointed by the Biden administration to oversee the State Department’s response to the incidents left her role after six months reportedly due to internal arguments with other appointees, The Hill reported.

This came weeks after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, was confronted by diplomats who had Havana Syndrome who claimed they were not being taken seriously, according to The Hill.

The 2018 report makes clear that recordings from the US Embassy in Cuba actually captured native crickets and are likely unrelated to whatever caused the symptoms, according to a copy of the report released to BuzzFeed News.

'We believe the recorded sounds are mechanical or biological in origin, rather than electronic. The most likely source is the Indies short-tailed cricket,' says the 2018 report written by the JASON advisory group, an elite scientific board that reviews US national security concerns.

However, it goes on to note: 'It cannot be ruled out that the perceived sounds, while not harmful, are introduced by an adversary as deception so as to mask an entirely unrelated mode of causing illness in diplomatic personnel.'

'The objective medical evidence that the suffering experienced by the affected individuals is real, as is the necessity for therapeutic interventions,' the report adds.

Employees at the embassy recorded the strange sounds but the report argues that the noises are not directly related to whatever caused their symptoms

The 2018 report claims crickets are the most likely cause of the noises associated with the earliest cases of Havana Syndrome, but does not rule out that something else caused the documented medical symptoms associated with the affliction

Following the original cluster of cases in Cuba, US diplomats and spies around the world have been struck by the strange affliction, which is characterized by the sudden onset of headaches, nausea, and vertigo, sometimes followed by lingering symptoms and documented brain injury.

The chief suspects in the unsolved mystery are Russia and China, possibly employing microwave devices in an attempt to gather data from mobile devices remotely. Both countries deny involvement.

The earliest cases date to US diplomatic staff stationed in Havana in late 2016, who often reported hearing strange noises in conjunction with the onset of symptoms.

The 2018 report to the Trump administration was recently declassified but heavily redacted in relation to possible technological causes

Recordings of those noises circulated among embassy staff and eventually leaked to the public - but the new report suggests that the noises were not directly related to whatever caused the symptoms of Havana Syndrome.

Sections of the report that deal with hypotheses about potential microwave or other directed energy weapons are heavily redacted, including the entire conclusions section.

However the report does suggest that the noises recorded in Havana were not directly related to whatever caused the medical symptoms.

'No plausible single source of energy (neither radio/microwaves nor sonic) can produce both the recorded audio/video signals and the reported medical effects,' the report said.

The report finds that medical evidence supports that the symptoms of Havana Syndrome are real, but that no single source of energy could have caused both the noises and the symptoms

There have been 200 reported cases of the yet-unexplained illness, which has been colloquially named for its first reported case in 2016 at the US Embassy in Havana, Cuba, and affected American personnel on nearly every continent except Antarctica

A more recent report commissioned by the State Department and published by a National Academies of Sciences found that microwaves were the 'most plausible' cause of the symptoms of Havana Syndrome.

To date, there have been 200 reported cases of the yet-unexplained illness, which the State Department officials terms 'Anomalous Health Incidents'.

Roughly half of the cases involved CIA officers or their relatives, nearly 60 have been linked to Department of Defense workers or relatives, and about 50 involved State Department personnel.

As of August, the illness had reportedly affected American personnel stationed on every continent excluding Antarctica, including a baby in one case.

Several weeks ago, a CIA agent fell ill with suspected Havana syndrome while on a work trip to India with CIA Director William Burns, and another agent experienced the same symptoms about a month ago in Vietnam.

The CIA also evacuated an intelligence officer from Serbia who was suffering from symptoms within recent weeks, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

The circumstances surrounding incidents are being investigating, including if the agent in India was targeted because of his proximity to Burns.

The energy weapon the could cause Havana syndrome is said to be a smaller version of this 1990s Soviet microwave generator, which is kept at the University of New Mexico

'In the past 60 to 90 days, there have been a number of other reported cases' on U.S. soil and globally, Dr. James Giordano, a Georgetown University professor of neurology who is advising the U.S. government on the issue, told The WSJ.

'They are seen as valid reports with verified health indicators.'

What's causing Havana Syndrome remains a mystery.

Some theorize that the symptoms are caused inadvertently by surveillance equipment; while others believe incidents are caused by a mysterious sonic weapon.

Dr. Giordano told The WSJ that the cause could be some form of ultrasonic or acoustic device; a rapidly-pulsed microwave; or a laser-based system.

He told the outlet that the intent is unclear but it could be employing an electronic surveillance system with unusual side effects, or 'a discrete form of disruptive instrument,.

'That's a nice way of saying this is a weapon,' he said.

On September 15, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a memo to DOD employees to report any symptoms of the so-called Havana Syndrome in an effort to get to the bottom of the mysterious illness.

Austin advised personnel who believe they have come down with Havana Syndrome to, 'Immediately remove yourself, coworkers, and/or family member from the area, and report the incident,' according to the memo, first reported on by the New York Times.

The memo was issued to all 2.9million DOD employees, including service members, civilians and contractors

Although referred to as Anomalous Health Incidents by US government officials, the Havana Syndrome earned its colloquial name from the first reported instance of the illness in 2016 at the US embassy in Havana, Cuba

What is 'Havana Syndrome'?

The problem has been labeled the 'Havana Syndrome,' because the first cases affected personnel in 2016 at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba.

At least 200 cases across the government are now under investigation, up from several dozen last year, according to a U.S. defense official who was not authorized to discuss details publicly. The National Security Council is leading the investigation.

People who are believed to have been affected have reported headaches, dizziness and symptoms consistent with concussions, with some requiring months of medical treatment. Some have reported hearing a loud noise before the sudden onset of symptoms.

Investigators believe there are at least four cases involving Trump White House officials.

Advocates for those affected accuse the U.S. government of long failing to take the problem seriously or provide the necessary medical care and benefits.

US senators said last month that the government is investigating an apparent increase in the mysterious directed-energy attacks.

Symptoms include;

-hearing loss

-severe headaches

-memory issues

-dizziness

-brain injury

The request came amid a stepped-up investigation by the US government into the causes of the illness, and to discover who or what might be responsible.

'There's a classic intelligence problem, and we are approaching it with the same techniques,' David S. Cohen, deputy CIA director said at the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit in September, The New York Times reported.

'This is a serious issue. It's real, it's affecting our officers, it's affecting others around their community and in government.'

In August, Vice President Kamala Harris' trip to Vietnam was delayed by more than three hours due to an 'anomalous health incident in Hanoi,' which is what the U.S. government officially calls suspected Havana syndrome cases.

In May reports emerged that some US officials suspect Russia's infamous foreign intelligence agency - the GRU - could be the culprit.

A US military officer based in a country with a large Russian presence also said he felt like his head was going to explode during one incident when he was near a GRU vehicle.

And Politico reported that government investigators are examining a suspected attack on US personnel in Miami last year.

Earlier in July, former CIA officer and Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Marc Polymeropolous claimed that he was zapped by one of the attacks while visiting a Moscow hotel room in 2017 and blamed it for destroying his career, as well as debilitating headaches that he continues to get.

In October 2020, a story emerged of diplomat Mark Lenzi, 45, who was stationed in Guangzhou, China, in 2017, when he developed unexplained symptoms, including headaches, memory loss and trouble sleeping.

His neighbor Catherine Werner also fell ill and fellow US official Robyn Garfield was evacuated from Shanghai with his family in June 2018.

The incidents in China cast doubt on theories that Russia was behind the attacks, since it is a country where Russian intelligence would have trouble operating.

However, some believed that the attack made China a less likely suspect, questioning whether Beijing's intelligence service would strike on its own turf.

Biden says anyone who doesn't back his multi-trillion infrastructure bills is 'complicit in America's decline': MAGA protesters line Michigan streets with 'go home sleepy Joe' signs as President tries to sell his agenda in Trump country

2021-10-05T22:25:00.003-07:00

President Joe Biden arrived in Michigan Tuesday to hawk his $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and the larger budget bill at a union hall.

The president landed in Lansing and was greeted by Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who is facing a tough re-election fight next year. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist linked up with Biden on-site.

Biden visited a branch of the International Union of Operating Engineers in Howell, Michigan, the county seat of Livingston County, which chose former President Donald Trump over Biden by more than 20 points.

More than a thousand pro-Trump protesters lined the streets directly outside the union facility, with demonstrators holding up signs saying 'Trump Won', 'Go Home Sleepy Joe' and 'unmask kids' as he made his way from the airport to his event.

Makes me smile, I get more pumped up,' he said of the protesters after the event.

Speaking to a small group of union members and lawmakers, Biden pitched his infrastructure plans as non-partisan.

'These bills are not about left versus right or moderate versus progressive or anything that pits Americans against one another,' Biden said. 'To oppose these investments is to be complicit in America's decline,' he said.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks in Howell, Michigan on Tuesday about his Build Back Better agenda

President Joe Biden is shown how simulators for heavy equipment work at the International Union of Operating Engineers Training Facility in Howell, Michigan on Tuesday, alongside Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

President Joe Biden is shown a front-end lower simulator at the International Union of Operating Engineers Training Facility in Howell, Michigan on Tuesday before delivering remarks

President Joe Biden was shown both vintage and modern heavy equipment on the second stop of his tour

President Joe Biden hugs Rep. Elissa Slotkin as he arrives in Lansing, Michigan Tuesday. Biden made the trip to pitch his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, along with the bigger reconciliation bill that includes a number of liberal goodies

The trip comes after Biden dashed progressives' hopes telling them that the $3.5 trillion budget bill needed to be slashed by more than a trillion dollars.

CBS News reported that the new pricetag for the 'human instrastructure' bill was to be between $1.9 and $2.2 trillion. A source told the network that the White House was open to means testing, though progressives have voiced that measuring eligibility for some programs could be burdensome for government workers - actually making them more expensive.

Biden also met with a more moderate group of House members virtually Tuesday morning before departing the White House.

Upon arriving in Howell, Biden made two stops inside the International Union of Operating Engineers Training Facility.

He first was shown a number of simulators that teach people how to drive front-end loaders and fly drones.

'You get up there and you feel like you own the world,' Biden said, talking about heavy machine operators.

Entering a larger room, that contained a vintage piece of equipment and a modern spider crane, Biden marveled to reporters, 'I learned how to fly a drone!'

After his tour of the facility, Biden made his pitch about the bills.

'Every bit is paid for, by the way,' the president said. 'No deficit, every bit of it is paid for up front,' he repeated.

Slotkin made a similar point when she opened up for him.

Biden warned that without infrastructure improvements, the U.S. would fall behind.

'We've taken our foot off the case. And the world has taken notice by the way,' he said.

He mentioned conversations with world leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

'They're betting for the first time we won't respond to this inflection point,' Biden said.

Biden called out Republicans for not playing ball.

'We haven't passed a major infrastructure bill in decades in this country. It used to be a normal thing to do. It used to be a bipartisan thing to do,' the president said.

Biden is visiting Slotkin's district and will speak in Howell, the county seat of Livingston County, which chose former President Donald Trump over Biden by more than 20 points

Protesters lined the streets as Biden's motorcade drove from the airport to his first event

The demonstrators held up signs saying 'Trump won' and 'Go Home Sleepy Joe' as he tried to sell his massive spending plan

One demonstrator compared Biden to Stalin and a youngster said unmask kids. Biden did have a small group of supporters there to greet him for his trip

The Trump supporters waved and recorded videos on their phones as the motorcade and press van went by

President Joe Biden departs for Michigan where he'll tout the two bills he wants Congress to pass - the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package and a larger, budget bill that will include 'human infrastructure' programs

President Biden exits the Oval Office into the White House Rose Garden to head to Michigan to sell his infrastructure plan

President Joe Biden salutes as he boards Air Force One for a trip to Howell, Michigan

The $3.5 trillion bill includes climate change provisions, universal pre-K, child care assistance, tuition-free community college, paid medical and family leave, the extension of the child tax credit and enhanced Medicare coverage.

The pro-Trump protests were't surprising as the county surrounding Howell went for the Republican president in 2020. Slotkin, however, represents the district, as it stretches over to parts of Lansing, the home of Michigan State.

Biden brushed off a question about whether she was worried about winning re-election - hence the visit to her district.

Slotkin is one of 17 House Democrats being targeted by ads funded by the National Republican Congressional Committee, linking her to Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and '$3 trillion in tax hikes.'

Previewing the trip Monday, Psaki said the trip would revolve around Biden pitching the two bills.

'He wants to go out there and talk about the components and the pieces of these bills that will make people's lives better, even as we're having very important conversation about the legislative logistics here,' Psaki said.

A Thursday night vote on the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill was stalled over a progressive threat to tank the bill.

They used the tactic to try and get moderate support for the larger package, which was originally pitched as a $3.5 trillion investment.

'People don't think of their roads as partisan, for good reason, nor do they think of their childcare is partisan,' said White House press secretary Jen Psaki when asked by Biden decided to go into Trump country to sell his two bills

Besides being one of the three formerly Democratic states that Biden flipped back from Trump, Psaki said the president chose Michigan because it would 'benefit greatly from both the bipartisan infrastructure package and the Build Back Better agenda.'

'Just to give you a couple of examples, Michiganders - I confirmed that is actually what people from Michigan call themselves ... spent an extra 67 per cnet of their time commuting because of their need for updating infrastructure,' Psaki said.

'Almost 10 per cent people in Michigan don't have broadband access, that is really something that will help level the playing field for people, whether they're in urban or rural communities,' she continued. 'Forty-four per cent of people in Michigan live in childcare deserts.'

'These are all issues that are addressed by both of these packages,' the press secretary added.

WA leader Mark McGowan launches extraordinary attack on NSW and accuses new premier Dominic Perrottet of being an 'appalling' treasurer: 'They never stop whingeing'

2021-10-05T22:25:00.001-07:00

Mark McGowan has taken an extraordinary swipe at New South Wales' Dominic Perrottet and the entire state itself just moments after he was sworn in as the state's premier.

The Western Australian Labor leader blasted the former treasurer for his 'appalling' financial management and said if it wasn't for the Golden State, NSW would be broke.

Their bitter war of words comes as tensions flare over the redistribution of GST revenue and after premier Perrottet recently labelled Mr McGowan the 'Gollum of Australian politics'.

Mr Perrottet was sworn in on Tuesday following Gladys Berejiklian's shock resignation on Friday after it was revealed she is now at the centre of corruption probe.

But Mr McGowan wasted no time attacking his NSW counterpart, saying he hadn't congratulated him as he 'wouldn't know his number' and there had been so many premiers in the eastern state that he 'can't keep track of them'.

Ms Berejiklian was in the role for nearly five years.

'The NSW government has been very poor financial managers, they now have massive deficits and massive debts, they managed Covid very badly and you can see the consequences,' Premier McGowan said.

'So instead of looking in the mirror, they look west to blame us for their situation.

'The reality is that if it wasn't for our efforts to keep Covid out and keep our industries open, the huge bailout with about a billion dollars every week going to NSW would not be possible.'

NSW's economy has been much harder hit by the pandemic as the closure of international borders cut off the supply of tourists, international students, and business travel.

Western Australia was far less affected as the vast majority of its revenue comes from mining and oil and gas and it receives far fewer tourists.

Mr McGowan accused the 'whinging' Liberal leader of trying to undermine WA's split of the roughly $65billion divvied up between the states and territories every year.

At the moment WA, with its lucrative resources sector, is redistributed 70c for every dollar it puts in, while NSW receives about 96c.

'To be frank with you, I'm tired of listening to their whinging,' Mr McGowan said.

'They never stop whinging and the reality is we have supported them far more than they have supported us.'

Mark McGowan (pictured right with wife Sarah at the Brownlow Medal) expects a stoush with rival state NSW over GST revenue

The Western Australian Labor leader blasted the former treasurer for his 'appalling' financial management and said if it wasn't for the Golden State, NSW would be broke. Pictured: FMG Solomon mining Hub in the Pilbara

Even though a Commonwealth review of the GST split is not due until the 2025-26 financial year, the state leaders are already feuding over the hugely divisive issue which has long been a sticking point among WA residents.

Mr McGowan said that instead of criticising WA, Mr Perrottet and the rest of the east coast should be grateful.

'Gratitude is in short supply over there, but we will continue to keep our industries open and keep providing huge support to those eastern states and continue to prop up their economies,' he said.

'He's (Mr Perrottet) been the treasurer for however long but NSW financial performance has been appalling.

'We did our budget recently with a $5.8billion surplus, while they've got deficits in the tens of billions of dollars, so clearly we won't cop any stick from them.'

The WA premier neglected to mention that Mr Perrottet delivered multiple budget surpluses before the pandemic wiped out NSW's international revenue sources.

Dominic Perrottet (pictured with wife Helen) described the WA Premier as the ' the Gollum of Australian politics'

NSW economy has been decimated during the Covid lockdown. Pictured: A pedestrian in a protective face mask crosses a quiet street in the city centre during a lockdown on September 28, 2021

When asked if he had congratulated the new NSW premier, he replied: 'I wouldn't know his number.'

'He's a relatively young man so I assume he'll be around in the role - though NSW premiers change pretty quick, so many I can't keep track of them, they're like prime ministers,' he went on.

'So I assume he'll be around for a while and clearly his sights are set on undermining our revenue and GST.'

Mr Perrottet on Friday compared the WA leader to Gollum, referring to the depraved Lord of the Rings' character.

'Mark McGowan is the Gollum of Australian politics,' Mr Perrottet told Sky News.

'You can just picture him over there in his cave with his 'little precious' - the GST.'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has assured WA will keep its fair share of GST revenue.

'I was the first Prime Minister to ensure that Western Australia got their fair share of GST and stood up to all those who opposed it,' he told The West Australian.

The WA Premier has ignited a war of words with NSW Premier front runner Dominic Perrottet (pictured in Sydney on Monday)

'My government fixed it and my government will protect it. The only person Western Australians need to worry about is Anthony Albanese who in government never acted to fix WA's GST allocation.'

But the state opposition aren't convinced.

'We know Scott Morrison was as thick as thieves with Gladys Berejiklian and he will be the same with Dominic Perrottet,' shadow trade and resources minister Madeleine King said.

'There's every chance he'll entertain and look at winding back WA's fair share of the GST.'

Assistant shadow minister Patrick Gorman fears Mr Perrottet has 'WA's GST squarely in his sights.'

Anti-vaccine rioters who attacked a union office in Melbourne infected at least THIRTY SEVEN people with Covid including dozens of kids and two babies - as officials blast 'selfless and reckless' protesters

2021-10-05T22:24:00.005-07:00

A series of violent protests outside Melbourne's CFMEU building has left 37 people infected with Covid-19, after seven union officials caught the virus from rioters and unknowingly took it home to their families.

Among those infected from the rallies, which saw the city stand still at the end of last month include 'very sick' elderly parents, young children and two babies, the union confirmed on Tuesday.

Daily Mail Australia understands the total number now struck down with the virus from the protests has jumped to 37 after union officials unknowingly infected their families after catching Covid at the protest.

A four-month-old baby is understood to be in hospital with the virus along with their mother, as is a two-year-old toddler.

The union's secretary John Setka unleashed on those responsible for the jump in cases, labelling them 'selfish idiots'.

A series of violent protests outside Melbourne's CFMEU building has left 37 residents infected with Covid-19 (pictured on September 20)

Those at the rallies were protesting against the government's vaccine mandate for tradies

Some were seen hurling bread crates at the CFMEU office in Melbourne last month (pictured on September 20)

'The tragedy is that due to the actions of these reckless and selfish protesters, many of these members families who have been infected are very sick with the Delta virus,' he said in a statement on Tuesday.

'These protesters are just selfish idiots with absolutely no care for anyone other than themselves.

'They have caused enormous stress and heartache for members' families who were just doing their job on the day of the protest.'

The violence first began on September 20 with construction workers furious at the state government's mandate for all workers to get the jab.

Hundreds of construction workers gathered together to protest against vaccine mandates for the industry

The chaos prompted Premier Daniel Andrews to shut down the construction industry entirely for two weeks with workers finally able to get back on the tools on Tuesday

Over 300,000 plus constructions workers were left locked out of work as a result of the decision to shut down the industry

Tradies donning high-vis vests gathered outside the CFMEU building to protest against the vaccine mandates while chanting expletive-ridden messages to Mr Setka and hurling objects towards the union's office.

Bottles and a bread crate were among the projectiles thrown, while a glass window was also smashed during the ugly and chaotic scenes.

The chaos prompted Premier Daniel Andrews to shut down the construction industry entirely for two weeks - sparking even more protests over the next few days.

More than 300,000 plus constructions workers were left locked out of work as a result of the snap decision.

For the rest of the week, furious protesters chased police and pelted squad cars with cans as rallies on the streets descended into chaos and stopped traffic.

Some healthcare workers were told not to wear their uniforms in public after being spat on by vile demonstrators and two vaccination centres were forced to close.

Meanwhile, a Channel 7 TV reporter covering the march was assaulted by a protester and had bags filled with urine thrown at him while countless people were arrested.

Police are seen wrestling with a protester on September 21 in Melbourne during the wild riots

A sea of protesters are seen marching through the streets of Melbourne on September 21

The front window of the CFMEU building was smashed by violent protesters on September 20

As of Tuesday, the construction industry has resumed work with 25 per cent of staff able to work on large projects.

Daily inspections will be carried out at sites while all workers will need to have received both jabs by November 13 and will need to carry an authorised permit.

Sites will need to show an updated Covidsafe plan and a designated Covid marshall will also be required.

Tea rooms can also reopen following the installation of ventilators and fans to help with air flow.

It comes after Victoria suffered a record-breaking 1,763 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday - the highest ever daily total in Australia.

Melbourne has been locked down longer than any city in the world through the whole pandemic and will not begin to taste freedom until at least October 26.

How the protests unfolded:

Monday, September 20

Construction workers angry about vaccination mandates storm the headquarters of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union in Melbourne's CBD.

Hours later Premier Daniel Andrews announces a statewide shutdown of the construction industry for two weeks from September 21.

Tuesday, September 21

About 2,000 protesters angered by the shutdown of sites across Metropolitan Melbourne, Geelong, the Surf Coast, Ballarat and Mitchell Shire march through the city.

Anti-vaxxer protesters chased police and pelted squad cars with cans as as they gather outside Victoria's Parliament House.

They march to block the West Gate Bridge - a major freeway into Melbourne's CBD - bringing peak hour traffic to a stand still.

Wednesday, September 22

Riot police move in to shut down dozens of people marching along Elizabeth and Collins streets.

About 400 protesters descend on Victoria's Shrine of Remembrance in a three hour stand off with police, chanting 'lest we forget'.

Thursday, September 23

Victoria Police ramp up measures to stop protesters gathering including an attempt to stop television crews from live streaming from outside construction union CFMEU's headquarters.

Two Melbourne vaccination hubs were forced to close after workers were spat on by anti-vaxxer protesters.

Friday, September 24

As protest numbers dwindle 60 people gathered in Melbourne's inner north suburbs.

Riot police were deployed to Northcote Plaza shopping centre where 31 arrests were made.

Saturday, September 25

About 200 demonstrators descend on St Kilda foreshore for the 'Millions March for Freedom' rally.

There were 20 public response order units deployed and a roadblock setup outside Melbourne's Luna Park.

Hundreds of officers arrested dozens of demonstrators with one person heard shouting 'F*** Dan Andrews' through a megaphone.

Biden insists he HAS confidence in Fed chair Jay Powell 'thus far' after Elizabeth Warren called him a 'dangerous man' who could tear down US banking

2021-10-05T22:24:00.003-07:00

President Joe Biden on Tuesday said he has confidence in Fed chairman Jerome Powell even as top fed officials battle accusations of insider trading – inserting a slight hedge into his comment.

Asked while traveling in Michigan whether he still has confidence in Powell, whose term expires in a few months, Biden responded: 'Thus far yes, but I'm just catching up on some of these assertions.'

He spoke hours after his deputy press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre also included a slight hedge of her own when asked a similar question aboard Air Force One.

''He does have confidence in ... Powell at this time,' she responded.

She had been asked about comments by liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who has helped install key allies in top financial positions in the administration, bashing Powell for failing to safeguard the integrity of the Fed by allowing financial trades by top fed officials.

'Thus far yes,' said President Joe Biden, asked Tuesday whether he has confidence in Fed Chair Jay Powell

Biden himself was asked about trading activity and whether the Fed had maintained its integrity.

'For Fed officials to actively trade in the market raises legitimate questions about conflicts of interest and insider trading,' Warren said in a fiery Senate floor speech Tuesday. 'These Fed officials actually show, at a minimum, really bad judgment.'

Powell, a Trump nominee who has helped steer the economy during its rise from pandemic lows, is set to have his term as chair expire in February 2022, although Biden could renominate him.

The trades by top Fed officials present a political as well as a potential legal problem, coming as the nation battled the coronavirus pandemic.

Warren is demanding that the US Securities and Exchange Commission open an investigation into three top Federal Reserve officials' potential 'insider trading' during the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday.

In a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, Warren asked him to probe securities trading of Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida, Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan and Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren after stunning reports emerged they cashed in on the market while millions of Americans were reeling from the pandemic's economic effects.

Rosengren and Kaplan resigned after a public outcry over their transactions.

DailyMail.com asked the SEC to confirm whether Gensler had received the letter but the agency declined to comment.

The progressive senator also took aim at Fed Chair Jerome Powell, hinting that he knew they violated insider trading rules and did nothing to stop it.

'If these trades were based on Fed officials' knowledge of non-public, market moving information, they may have represented potentially illegal activity,' Warren wrote.

'It is not clear why Chair Powell did not stop these activities, which corrode the trust and effectiveness of the Fed. The Fed officials' trades clearly run afoul of Fed guidelines stating that officials should 'avoid any dealings or other conduct that might convey even an appearance of conflict between their personal interests, the interests of the System, and the public interest.'

Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler demanding an investigation into three top Federal Reserve officials

She said the three officials likely hold 'non public' knowledge of the markets by virtue of their positions on the Federal Reserve - which went to unprecedented levels of intervention to keep the US economy afloat during the pandemic.

'They may have violated SEC's insider trading rules,' Warren claimed.

Insider trading charges carry a maximum sentence of $5 million in criminal penalties and 20 years in prison, along with civil charges of 'three times the amount of the profit gained or loss avoided,' according to US law.

On Saturday it was revealed that Clarida, Powell's top deputy, traded between $1 million and $5 million out of a bond fund into stocks just a day before his boss issued a statement warning of potential policy action in the face of a worsening COVID crisis, Bloomberg reported.

In February 2020 Powell warned that COVID-19 'poses evolving risks to economic activity' and the Fed was 'closely monitoring developments and their implications for the economic outlook.'

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida traded between $1 million and $5 million from bonds to stocks a day before Powell announced possible policy action to combat the pandemic

The Fed told Reuters that Clarida's financial activity wasn't anything out of the ordinary and the funds were picked with Fed approval.

'The transactions were executed prior to his involvement in deliberations on Federal Reserve actions to respond to the emergence of the coronavirus and not during a blackout period. The selected funds were chosen with the prior approval of the Board's ethics official,' the agency said.

It was the third ethics crisis for the Fed within just weeks. In late September, Kaplan and Rosengren - two out of a dozen regional Fed presidents nationwide - announced their retirements after they were also accused of pandemic profiteering.

Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said he will retire on October 8, citing the 'distraction' of the controversy over his investments, while Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren retired on September 30, pointing to a long-term health condition.

While both men claim their investments were approved by Fed ethics officers, their attempts to build wealth while millions were out of work and struggling to pay bills created an image crisis for the Fed.

Powell announced a sweeping review of the Fed's ethics guidelines after Kaplan and Rosengren's trading became public.

In a statement with his decision Powell said having Americans' trust is 'essential' to the Fed being able to perform its duties.

Two of twelve regional Fed presidents, Dallas Fed Chair Robert Kaplan and Boston Fed Chair Eric Rosengren , recently retired after ethics scandals into their trade activity

But Warren said on Monday the financial disclosures brings 'serious questions' about the Fed's ethical standards.

'The reports of this financial activity by Fed officials raise serious questions about possible conflicts of interest and a reveal a disregard for the public trust. They also reflect atrocious judgement by these officials, and an attitude that personal profiteering is more important than the American people's confidence in the Fed,' she wrote.

The latest attack from Warren comes as Powell is fast becoming a frequent target for progressives in Congress as his term as Fed chair gets closer to expiring in February.

Amid reports that President Biden is considering re-nominating the Trump administration appointee, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) among others wrote him a letter urging him to choose someone with more progressive views.

Powell is supported by moderate Democrats like Senator Dick Durbin and generally well-regarded among Republicans, so a relatively simple confirmation process is likely.

But at a hearing last week, Warren unleashed on the Fed chair and called him a 'dangerous man' for the US economy.

Warren argued that Powell weakened the US banking system by rolling back financial regulations that were enacted after the 2008 financial crisis.

'I came to Washington after the 2008 crash to make sure that nothing like that would ever happen again. Your record gives me grave concern,' the Massachusetts lawmaker said.

'Over and over, you have acted to make our banking system less safe, and that makes you a dangerous man to head up the Fed, and it's why I will oppose your re-nomination.

'Re-nominating you means gambling that for the next five years, a Republican majority of the Federal Reserve with a Republican chair, who has regularly voted to deregulate Wall Street, won't drive this economy over a financial cliff again,' Warren said.

'And with so many qualified candidates for this job, I just don't think that's a risk worth taking.'

The White House has not yet announced a decision on whether to reappoint Powell or choose an alternative.

The Taliban's medieval justice: The corpses of three 'criminals' are hoisted from diggers in Herat after they 'invaded another man's home and tried to rob him' in Afghanistan

2021-10-05T22:24:00.001-07:00

The bodies of three alleged criminals were hung from diggers in Afghanistan by the Taliban, harrowing pictures released today show.

According to deputy governor Mawlawi Shir Ahmad Muhajir, the three men were killed by another man when they entered his home in Obe district in Herat province.

In the graphic images shared on social media, the corpses are shown publicly hoisted into the air and hanging by their necks from the raised arms of two diggers as people below watch on and take photographs.

Tuesday's gruesome publicly display is yet another example of the kind of practices that feed international concern that the Taliban have returned to their brutal ways last seen when they were in control of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

This is despite the Taliban frequently insisting to the world that it has changed from the hard-line Islamic group that doled out brutal punishments to criminals and greatly restricted the rights of the country's citizens, particularly women and girls.

Pictured: The bodies of three alleged criminals, who according to deputy governor Mawlawi Shir Ahmad Muhajir were killed by a man when they entered his home, are seen hoisted in public from two cranes by the Taliban at Obe district in Herat province on October 5, 2021

According to deputy governor Mawlawi Shir Ahmad Muhajir, the three men were killed by another man when they entered his home

Dissemination of the images came as a rights group Amnesty International claimed Taliban forces unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras, most of them Afghan soldiers who had surrendered to the insurgents.

The 13 killings took place in the village of Kahor in Daykundi province in central Afghanistan on August 30, according to Amnesty.

Eleven of the victims were members of the Afghan national security forces and two were civilians, among them a 17-year-old girl.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson's envoy met with the Taliban in Afghanistan today as part of an effort to prevent the country from becoming 'an incubator for terrorism.'

Sir Simon Gass, the Prime Minister's High Representative for Afghan Transition, met with terror chiefs in Kabul - the first summit since British forces evacuated in August amid chaotic scenes that defined the end of the West's backing of the country.

Mr Johnson has faced down fury from Tory backbenchers over the decision to sit down with the Taliban, who have executed dissidents, tortured prisoners and forced women into hiding since seizing power from the US-backed government.

Sir Simon met with fearsome Islamist tyrants, including the de-facto leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, known as 'Baradar the Butcher', deputy prime minister Abdul-Salam Hanafi and foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.

Sir Simon Gass, the Prime Minister's High Representative for Afghan Transition, met with terror chiefs in Kabul - the first summit since British forces evacuated in August (Pictured: Gass shaking hands with the Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Tuesday)

Taliban leadership also met with Iranian officials in Kabul today in an effort to boost trade relations key to filling cash-starved coffers as the country teeters on the brink of economic collapse.

Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi announced the meeting with the Iranian delegation on Tuesday.

They agreed to increase trading hours at the Islam Qala border crossing from eight hours per day to 24, better regulate the collection of tariffs and improve roadworks. Customs are a key source of domestic revenue for the country.

The aid-dependent country is grappling with a liquidity crisis as assets remain frozen in the U.S. and disbursements from international organizations that once accounted for 75 percent of state spending have been paused.

Meanwhile in Kabul, the Taliban said Tuesday they arrested 11 members of the Islamic State group, a rival and bitter enemy of the insurgents.

The Islamic State group's affiliate - based in eastern Nangarhar province - has claimed responsibility for a spate of recent attacks targeting Taliban forces in eastern Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi posted on Twitter that the raid was carried out on Sunday night in the Afghan capital's Fifth Police District.

He provided no further details. The raid came just hours after a bombing that targeted the Eid Gah Mosque in Kabul, killing at least five people.

IS claimed responsibility for the mosque attack late on Monday, saying in a posting on its media arm, the Aamaq news agency, that one of their suicide bombers targeted senior Taliban figures following a mourning service.

Sunday's bombing was the deadliest attack in Kabul since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan with the chaotic departure of the last U.S. troops on August 31.

IS had also claimed responsibility for the horrific bombing on August 26 that killed more than 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. military personnel outside the Kabul airport, where thousands of people were trying to reach the airport to escape Taliban rule.

Pictured: Taliban fighters patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan October 5, 2021. Tuesday's gruesome publicly display is yet another example of the kind of practices that feed international concern that the Taliban have returned to their brutal ways last seen when they were in control of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001

The world has been watching whether the Taliban would live up to their initial promises of tolerance and inclusiveness toward women and ethnic minorities, among them the Shiite Hazaras.

However, Taliban actions so far, such as renewed restrictions on women and the appointment of an all-male government, have been met with dismay by the international community.

Protests against the Taliban's policies toward women continued, with a demonstration Tuesday in a Kabul private school by female teachers and students who held up signs saying 'Education is a right.'

The protest was held indoors to avoid backlash from the Taliban, who have recently outlawed demonstrations held without permission from the government.

The U.N. children's agency continued to sound the alarm, saying a humanitarian crisis is imminent and warning that half of Afghanistan's children under age 5 are expected to suffer from severe malnutrition as hunger takes root amid serious food shortages.

'There are millions of people who are going to starve and there is winter coming, COVID raging, and the whole social system collapsed,' said Omar Adbi, UNICEF's deputy executive director for programs, during a visit to a Kabul children's hospital.

At the hospital, a woman named Nargis sat with her 3-year-old child who was suffering from severe malnutrition.

She had come from Kunar province in northeastern Afghanistan, where fighting between the Taliban and the Islamic State group has deprived communities of accessing basic needs, including food. Nargis declined to give her full name.

Amnesty's secretary general, Agnes Callamard, referring to the killings in Daykundi, said 'these cold-blooded executions (of the Hazaras) are further proof that the Taliban are committing the same horrific abuses they were notorious for during their previous rule of Afghanistan.'

Afghanistan Taliban officials attend a news conference where they announced they will start issuing passports to its citizens again following months of delays that hampered attempts by those trying to flee the country after the Taliban seized control, in Kabul, October 5, 2021

Hazaras make up around 9 percent of Afghanistan's 36 million people. They are often targeted because they are Shiite Muslims in a Sunni-majority country.

Taliban spokespersons Zabihullah Mujahid and Karimi did not respond to calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The rights group said Sadiqullah Abed, the Taliban-appointed chief of police for Daykundi, denied any killings had happened and only said that a member of the Taliban had been wounded in an attack in the province.

The Taliban took control of Daykundi province on August 14, according to the Amnesty report, and an estimated 34 former soldiers sought safety in Khidir district. The soldiers, who had government military equipment and weaponry with them, agreed to surrender to the Taliban.

Mohammad Azim Sedaqat, who led the group's surrender, arranged to decommission the weapons in the presence of Taliban members.

On August 30, an estimated 300 Taliban fighters arrived in a convoy close to Dahani Qul village, where the security forces members were staying, some with family members, according to Amnesty's report.

As the security forces attempted to leave the area with their families, Taliban fighters caught up with them and opened fire on the crowd, killing a 17-year-old girl named Masuma. One soldier fired back, killing a Taliban fighter and wounding another.

The Taliban continued to shoot as the families fled, killing two soldiers, according to the report. After nine security forces surrendered, the Taliban took them to a nearby river basin and killed them, according to the rights group.

Amnesty said it verified photographs and video evidence taken in the aftermath of the killings.

A Taliban fighter with an AK-47 backed by a comrade in a machine gun-rigged truck stands guard in Kabul on October 3

Sir Simon sits down with foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in images posted by the Taliban official's Twitter account

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar 'Baradar the Butcher', co-founder of the Taliban who fought the Soviets and the US

Abdul Ghani Baradar

While Haibatullah Akhundzada is the Taliban's overall leader, Abdul Ghani Baradar is head of its political office and one of the most recognisable faces of the chiefs who have been involved in peace talks in Qatar.

His name Baradar means 'brother', a title which was conferred by Taliban founder Mullah Omar himself as a mark of affection.

The 53-year-old was deputy leader under ex-chief Mullah Mohammed Omar, whose support for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden led to the US-led invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11.

Born in Uruzgan province in 1968, Baradar was raised in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement. He fought with the mujahideen against the Soviets in the 1980s until they were driven out in 1989.

Afterwards, Afghanistan was gripped by a bloody civil war between rival warlords and Baradar set up an Islamic school in Kandahar with his former commander Mohammed Omar.

The two mullahs helped to found the Taliban movement, an ideology which embraced hardline orthodoxy and strived for the creation of an Islamic Emirate.

Fuelled by zealotry, hatred of greedy warlords and with financial backing from Pakistan's secret services, the Taliban seized power in 1996 after conquering provincial capitals before marching on Kabul, just as they have in recent months.

Baradar had a number of different roles during the Taliban's five-year reign and was the deputy defence minister when the US invaded in 2001.

He went into hiding but remained active in the Taliban's leadership in exile.

In 2010, the CIA tracked him down to the Pakistani city of Karachi and in February of that year the Pakistani intelligence service arrested him.

But in 2018, he was released at the request of the Trump administration as part of their ongoing negotiations with the Taliban in Qatar, on the understanding that he could help broker peace.

Britain's Sir Simon Gass was joined in Kabul by the Charge d'Affaires of the UK Mission to Afghanistan in Doha Dr Martin Longden.

A Government spokesman said: 'Sir Simon and Dr Longden discussed how the UK could help Afghanistan to address the humanitarian crisis, the importance of preventing the country from becoming an incubator for terrorism, and the need for continued safe passage for those who want to leave the country.

'They also raised the treatment of minorities and the rights of women and girls.

'The Government continues to do all it can to ensure safe passage for those who wish to leave and is committed to supporting the people of Afghanistan.'

A statement on Twitter which appeared to be from a Taliban foreign affairs spokesman said: 'The meeting focused on detailed discussions about reviving diplomatic relations between both countries, assurance of security by IEA (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) for all citizens entering legally, and humanitarian assistance by UK for the Afghans.'

Abdul Qahar Balkhi said the UK delegation had said Mr Johnson was 'seeking to build relations with IEA while taking into account prevailing circumstances' while the Afghan side said the UK 'must take positive steps regarding relations and cooperation, and begin a new chapter of constructive relations'.

He said: 'We expect others to also not work towards weakening our government.'

It comes after Tory MPs last week raised concerns in Parliament that Britain should be wary of placing any trust in the Taliban.

Tory MP Tom Tugenhadt, a former Army officer who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee, said the terrorists were fronting 'a slick PR operation masking a vicious death cult.'

He said it was 'absolutely clear' that Taliban fighters were already rounding up and killing Afghans who worked with the West in cities including Kabul, Kandahar and Lashkar Gah.

Mr Tugendhat said it was also evident that girls were being 'denied education' by the fanatics and women were being sent home from their jobs.

Fellow Tory Nus Ghani, who is working to get persecuted female MPs out of Afghanistan, said it was clear women would suffer under Taliban rule.

'I do not believe the Taliban have changed,' she added.

The Taliban has been in control in Afghanistan since the fall of the western-backed government in August.

It comes as Defence secretary Ben Wallace said the UK military withdrawal from Afghanistan showed the connection of global events, providing opportunities for China and Islamist terrorists.

Mr Wallace told a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester: 'It is all interconnected and Afghanistan matters.

Sir Simon was joined at the meeting by the Charge d'Affaires of the UK Mission to Afghanistan in Doha Dr Martin Longden

Tory MP Tom Tugendhat last week said the Taliban was fronting 'a slick PR operation masking a vicious death cult'

'Who popped up immediately as the US and Nato were leaving, but China, offering to invest in Afghanistan?

'That was about securing land routes to ports such as Karachi and also into Pakistan.

'It is all connected. The ripples from Afghanistan will be felt by al-Shabaab in Somalia, and of course al-Shabaab pose a threat to British interests in Kenya and to our friends in Kenya.

'The ripples of another superpower being portrayed as defeated by Islamic terrorism will be felt across the world.'

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, 37, is a Harvard graduate who worked for Silicon Valley's biggest names and co-founded $2BN Hinge dating app

2021-10-05T22:23:00.005-07:00

Facebook's whistleblower is a Harvard Business School grad whose technical wizardry helped revolutionize some of the world's biggest apps.

Frances Haugen gave up her lucrative, six-figure Facebook salary and outed herself on primetime television Sunday as the tipster who quietly leaked thousands of pages of company documents to journalists, lawyers, and lawmakers.

Before going public with her concerns, she consulted with her mom, a biochemist who became an Episcopalian priest in 2012, The Wall Street Journal reported.

She previously built her career in Silicon Valley while working for tech giants such as Google, where she launched its first book reading app. She founded Yelp's photo quality team, and said is the reason menu photos are available on the app.

And in 2011, at age 27, she co-founded Hinge precursor Secret Agent Cupid, and took it to market. The dating app that focuses on long-term connections is today worth more than $2billion, according to BusinessofApps.

As the source behind damaging leaks about Facebook, she claimed it deliberately sought to stoke discontent, 'chose profit over safety,' and turned off 'safeguards' designed to stop the proliferation of misinformation following the 2020 election.

She outed herself during a 60 Minutes interview as the leaker of thousands of Facebook docs

She founded Secret Agent Cupid with Justin McLeod in 2011, and the company later evolved into the uber-successful mobile app Hinge.

McLeod later said he helped found the app to cure his own broken heart after breaking up with the love of his life.

He went on to reveal that he met the love of his life at college, but let her go due to his battle with alcoholism - and once he got sober regretted it.

When he tried - and failed - to reconnect with his ex Kate in 2012, her rejection inspired him to push the company forward.

He revealed: 'She was like 'listen, I have a life, I can't trust you, I love this other guy, it's best we don't see each other''.

The story - like the success of the app - had a happy ending when he reconciled with his former love in 2015. They later married.

It's not clear how much Haugen profited from participating in the venture's first iteration as a desktop service.

It launched as a mobile app in 2013, years after Haugen parted ways with the company.

Justin McLeod (pictured with wife Kate) co-founded Hinge with Haugen in 2011 under the original name Secret Agent Cupid. He said he was inspired to launch it after a bad breakup

The company is now worth an estimated $2billion, though Haugen left it in 2011. It's not clear how much money she earned by participating in the hugely-successful venture. Haugen is pictured left in 2017

Haugen most recently worked as a Facebook product manager.

Haugen, the daughter of University of Iowa professors, said she grew up attending Iowa caucuses with her parents, which instilled 'a strong sense of pride in democracy and responsibility for civic participation'.

Her mother, Alice Fulton Haugen, put her biochemistry work aside in 2012 to become an Episcopalian priest.

Haugen's mother, Alice Fulton Haugen, put her biochemistry work aside in 2012 to become an Episcopalian priest. She praised her daughter for going public with her Facebook concerns

She praised her daughter on Facebook for coming forward with allegations against the social media behemoth.

'I am awed by her courage,' Fulton Haugen said on Facebook. 'Proud to be her mother.'

The praise continued after the younger Haugen shared her concerns with Congress today.

Her now-infamous career began after she graduated from Olin College, where a former professor described her as an exemplary student.

'She was not just brilliant as most of our students were and are, she was enthusiastic, she was committed... She was the student who always had her hand up,' engineering professor Debbie Chachra told The Boston Globe.

She later tweeted: 'I am incredibly proud of Frances for living her values and effecting change in the world.'

Haugen graduated from Olin with a degree in electrical and computer engineer, and later earned a master's degree from Harvard Business School.

Haugen's concern for the greater community dates back to her childhood.

When she an eight-year-old growing up in Iowa City, she sent a letter to US Rep. Jim Leach to express concerns about road-widening plans.

'Please don't let them turn Melrose Avenue into a four-lane road,' she said in the letter, later pushed in the Iowa City Press-Citizen. 'I couldn't walk home from school because I have to cross Melrose. Sincerely yours Frances Haugen.'

She participated in geography contests while a Grade 6 student at Horn Elementary school.

But she told her local newspaper that geography was a mere hobby.

'I'm more into gardening because I want to be a biologist, and grow food to feed the world,' Haugen told the Press-Citizen in April 1997. 'Or I want to be a lawyer and then become a politician.'

She graduated from Iowa City West High School in 2002.

Before being tapped to join Facebook in June 2019, the algorithmic product management expert had worked on ranking algorithms at tech giants such as Google, Pinterest, and Yelp.

Google paid for her to attend Harvard to earn her MBA, but when she completed her higher education in 2011, she suffered a personal setback when she began suffering from an autoimmune disorder.

'I came back from business school, and I immediately started decaying,' she told The Wall Street Journal.

She said doctors ultimately diagnosed her with celiac disease, which caused painful nerve damage to her hands and feet.

Months after she left Google in 2014, a blood clot in her thigh sent her to the intensive care unit, the Journal reported.

During her two years with Facebook, she served as product manager on the 'civic misinformation' team, and later worked on 'counter-espionage.'

'During her time at Facebook, Frances became increasingly alarmed by the choices the company makes prioritizing their own profits over public safety and putting people's lives at risk,' it says on her personal website. 'As a last resort and at great personal risk, Frances made the courageous decision to blow the whistle on Facebook.'

During her two years with Facebook, she was the tech giant's product manager on the 'civic misinformation' team, and ironically later worked on 'counter-espionage'

Haugen said she joined Facebook in an effort to stop the spread of misinformation after a close friend was radicalized online.

She left the company in May.

'I felt compelled to take an active role in creating a better, less toxic Facebook,' she wrote in a prepared statement to Congress.

She reportedly confided in her mother before coming forward, who advised her to speak up if she believed lives were being jeopardized.

Her mom hinted at knowledge of the leaked documents by sharing links to stories about them on her Facebook page.

She shared a Wall Street Journal story in September that detailed Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg's alleged attempts to undermine national vaccine efforts.

'Very sobering,' Fulton Haugen wrote. 'The whole series is.'

She said in a statement to Congress that she felt 'compelled' to create a 'less toxic' Facebook

She left Facebook in May, and said she knows coming forward could have consequences

'…I came forward because I recognized a frightening truth: almost no one outside of Facebook knows what happens inside of Facebook.'

In a video posted to Gofundme – where donors have raised more than $30,000 for Haugen – the whistleblower said she recognized that coming forward could have catastrophic consequences.

'I understand Facebook has the resources – and potentially the motivation – to ruin my life,' she said. 'But I also accept it, because I know I am aligned with my values, and what I believe in.'

GOP Whip Steve Scalise calls Stephanie Grisham 'pathetic' for 'false' claim that Melania Trump refused to visit his family at the White House when she gave them a TOUR

2021-10-05T22:23:00.003-07:00

House Republican Whip Steve Scalise called former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham 'pathetic' after she claimed that Melania Trump refused to visit him at the White House in 2017 after he'd been shot.

Grisham wrote in her salacious new tell-all 'I'll Take Your Questions Now' that Scalise and his family had taken an impromptu trip to the White House shortly after the Louisiana Republican recovered from being hot at a baseball practice in 2017.

Grisham, who also worked as the first lady's press secretary, wrote that staff asked Mrs. Trump if she wanted to visit the Scalises, gathered in the Blue Room.

'No, I already said hello,' Melania said, apparently referring to when she and the president had visited Scalise in the hospital, as first reported by Insider.

Grisham said that Trump's response had become an inside joke among staff. 'Whenever the first lady said no to something, we would say to each other, 'Well, she already said hello!''

'This is how the fake news media machine against President Trump and @MELANIATRUMP works,' Scalise wrote on Twitter in response. 'This never happened. My family went to visit the White House while I was still in the hospital and were graciously given a tour by President and Mrs. Trump.'

The congressman included photos of both Trumps along with his wife and kids at the White House.

Scalise sounded off: 'This is another pathetic attempt by a disgraced former staffer to tell lies in order to sell books. If her publisher or a single outlet covering this story had done any fact checking, they would've learned it was fake. But they didn't because it fits their fake narrative.'

'The fact they need to stoop so low to make up verifiably false stories about a shooting victim and his family to paint a false picture of the Trumps tells you everything you need to know about their credibility.'

'Hi sir. All due respect, this isn't the visit I write about in my book, as you were still in the hospital,' Grisham said. 'I would never take advantage of the tragedy that befell you, but nevertheless, understand your need to defend the Trumps at all costs.'

Scalise said he never went to the White House for any other visit.

'Really? What's the date? I never went for an unscheduled visit with my family after I left the hospital.'

Scalise posted photos of First Lady Melania Trump with his children to counter Grisham's account

President Trump is pictured with Scalise's wife and children

Scalise's wife shakes hands with Barron Trump

Grisham stood by her claim in a statement to Fox News.

'I respect Steve Scalise and wouldn't expect he'd know about a conversation that he was not party to,' she said.

'Perhaps he is conflating two separate events. Mrs. Trump chose not to greet him in the Blue Room after he was discharged form the hospital even though she was just upstairs. I found this to be disrespectful to Congressman Scalise and his family – his tweet does not contradict what I wrote in my book,' Grisham added.

'I'll Take Your Questions Now' is available to the public as of Tuesday.

Grisham served as press secretary for the first lady at the time of the alleged incident, from April 2017 to July 2019, before returning to the role in April 2020 and splitting with the White House entirely on Jan. 6, 2021 after the Capitol riot.

She served as White House press secretary from July 2019 to April 2020 during which time she drew much condemnation for not holding a single press conference.

'Stephanie didn't have what it takes and that was obvious from the beginning,' Trump said in a statement on the book.

'She became very angry and bitter after her break up and as time went on she was seldom relied upon, or even thought about. She had big problems and we felt that she should work out those problems for herself. Now, like everyone else, she gets paid by a radical left-leaning publisher to say bad and untrue things.'

Policeman who shot dead a knife-wielding Indigenous mother in the street was not a 'trigger-happy' officer, murder trial hears

2021-10-05T22:23:00.001-07:00

The murder trial of a policeman who shot dead an Indigenous woman on a suburban West Australian street is set to hear further witness evidence.

As many as 60 people could be called to testify in the WA Supreme Court trial of the first-class constable, whose cannot be named for legal reasons.

He has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 29-year-old woman, known as JC for cultural reasons, in the Mid West town of Geraldton on September 17, 2019.

JC, a mother-of-one, had experienced mental health and drug problems and recently been released from prison before her death.

The accused was one of eight police officers who arrived at the scene after JC was spotted with a large knife and a pair of scissors.

Family and supporters of a woman, referred to as 'JC' at family's request, leave the District Court of West Australia in Perth

As the trial got underway on Tuesday, the jury was shown confronting CCTV footage of JC being shot while surrounded by four police vehicles.

Director of Public Prosecutions Amanda Forrester SC said five of the officers had stayed in their cars, a sixth left his vehicle unarmed and attempted to speak to JC and another had drawn his Taser but had not activated it.

The accused got out of his vehicle, drew his loaded firearm and ran towards JC.

'Less than three seconds after she stopped walking, the accused shot her in the abdomen,' Ms Forrester told the jury.

The court was told the accused, who is on bail, had spent five years as a permanent officer and 18 months as a probationary constable.

Given his extensive training, the number of officers present and the other available weapons, the shooting was 'wholly unnecessary', Ms Forrester said.

The officer's lawyer Linda Black said the court would be presented with evidence that her client acted correctly by drawing his gun, rather than a Taser, when confronting a person armed with a knife.

She said JC turned towards the accused, who was about three metres away, and 'eyeballed' him when he demanded she drop the knife.

The officer, who had never fired his gun while on duty, had less than a second to decide whether to pull the trigger given the close proximity, she said.

'He was not some trigger-happy constable ... he was a brave and careful officer who took pride in his job,' Ms Black said.

The lawyer added that the case had 'nothing whatsoever' to do with race.

The trial continues.

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The officer's lawyer Linda Black said the court would be presented with evidence that her client acted correctly by drawing his gun, rather than a Taser, when confronting a person armed with a knife

Gambino family underboss dies in prison from 'health issues' at the age of 89: Daughter 'rushed to be by her father's side and he sang Frank Sinatra as he took his last breath'

2021-10-05T22:22:00.007-07:00

Frank LoCascio, the Dapper Don's former underboss and acting consigliere, passed away Friday after serving 31 years of a life sentence

A Gambino crime family underboss who stayed loyal to John Gotti even as the pair were hit with life sentences during a 1992 murder and racketeering trial has died in prison at age 89.

Frank LoCascio, the Dapper Don's former underboss and acting consigliere, passed away Friday at the Federal Medical Center, Devens - a facility that houses federal prisoners with health issues - in Massachusetts.

His daughter, Lisa LoCascio, was by his side as he took his last breaths.

LoCascio had been incarcerated for 31 years before his death last week after famously refusing to snitch on notorious mob boss Gotti during their infamous and highly publicized trial.

What's more, the high-ranking mafioso managed to cheat death during his three decades in the pen even with Gotti as his enemy, after the Teflon Don turned on him and put a 'contract' on his former right-hand's life after a jailhouse quarrel, prison officials revealed.

'I am guilty of being a good friend of John Gotti,' the defiant underboss famously said in court after refusing to turn on his boss in lieu of a more lenient sentence, and being found guilty of racketeering and ordered to spend the rest of his natural life in prison.

'If there was more men like John Gotti, we would have a better country,' the mobster proudly professed at the time.

Career criminal LoCascio, pictured here on the right, next to boss John Gotti, managed to cheat death during his three decades in the pen even with Gotti as his enemy, after the Teflon Don turned on him and put a 'contract' on his former right-hand's life after a jailhouse quarrel, prison officials revealed

LoCascio and Gotti were cuffed by police in 1991 and charged in a sprawling racketeering case in which they were caught on tape discussing various mob matters - including murder - in the apartment of an old woman who lived above Gotti's Ravenite Social Club on Mulberry Street in Manhattan.

Gotti and LoCascio's fates were then sealed by Gambino turncoat Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano, who was initially indicted with the pestilent pair, but succumbed to lawmen's pressure and turned on his associates in the weeks leading up to the trial.

Gotti was found guilty of five counts of murder as well as racketeering, while LoCascio was convicted on charges of racketeering, without the possibility of parole.

Gotti eventually died of cancer while incarcerated in 2002 - but not before forming a life-or-death feud with his former comrade.

In his tell-all book released in 1997, Gravano - who briefly did time with Gotti and Locascio after agreeing to testify against the two in a deal which he confessed to involvement in 19 murders, before being released in 1994 - described a 1991 incident in which LoCascio gave Gravano an orange stolen from the prison cafeteria, before offering one to Gotti as well.

Infuriated, the hotheaded mob boss began to belittle LoCascio in front of the other inmates.

Later, Gravano says, a humiliated Locascio tearfully vowed to murder Gotti, stating, 'The minute I get out, I'm killing this .'

Gravano says that he and Locascio then formed a pact to kill Gotti at a prospective victory party, assuming they were all somehow acquitted.

Gravano detailed his conversation in 'Underboss': 'Frankie said, 'Sammy, two things. I'll bring him to the party myself, and I got to be the shooter.'

According to law enforcement sources and court papers, Gotti, angered after learning of his onetime follower's supposed insurgence through Gravano's book, then reached out to an Aryan Brotherhood prison gang to murder Locascio.

However, at some point, federal prison guards at the prison allegedly caught Gotti complaining about the Locascio passage on security cameras stationed at the facility, a source said.

LoCascio passed away Friday at the Federal Medical Center, Devens, a facility that houses federal prisoners with health issues, in Massachusetts

Without identifying Gotti, prison officials said in court papers that 'a possible 'contract' has been put on LoCascio's life by his former Mafia associates.'

But, in 1998, the hardheaded don was diagnosed with cancer, and died three years later - and the hit never materialized.

Now, more than thirty years later, LoCascio, one of the last remnants of Gotti's infamous crime administration, is dead.

LoCascio's daughter, Lisa LoCascio, told the Daily News that her father never complained during his 31 years in prison - and that he never once considered snitching.

Gambino turncoat Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano sealed LoCascio's and Gotti's fates after succumbing to lawmen's pressure in the buildup to the pair's highly publicized 1992 trial, and turned on his associates - but he later revealed that Gotti eventually turned on LoCascio as well, ordering a hit on him in prison

'That means something,' she said of her late father's loyalty to a family that allegedly cast him and wanted him dead. 'I won't explain it to you.'

She said her dad was a favorite among the staff at Devens and that he called her last Monday to say his goodbyes to the family.

'He said the things you say to your daughter when you choose your daughter to be the last phone call you're going to make,' LoCascio said.

After hearing from her father, Lisa rushed to the Massachusetts facility and held him in her arms as he slowly passed, singing him Frank Sinatra.

A career criminal, LoCascio was Gotti's underboss from 1987 to his arrest in 1991, and was a made man in the mafia for 35 years.

LoCascio helped Gotti carry out the murder of Gambino family member Louis 'Jelly Belly' DiBono in 1990, according to Gravano's testimony that put the pair away.

DiBono was found with a .25 caliber bullet in the head, with three more in his Cadillac in the parking garage of the World Trade Center.

Gotti had wanted DiBono dead for the frivolous reason that the Gambino soldier merely refused to meet with him when summoned on one particular occassion.

'He didn't do nothing else wrong,' Gotti said on the wiretap with LoCascio in the room.

'He's gonna get killed because he- he disobeyed coming.'

LoCascio also once bribed an NYPD detective for confidential information that benefited the Gambino crime syndicate, and even hatched an ultimately unsuccessful plan to kill a supposed snitch plotting against the Gambino family.

The late mafioso also obstructed the investigation into the 1985 murder of then-Gambino boss Paul Castellano - a hit that propelled Gotti to the top spot in the family in 1985, after the Teflon Don engineered the assassination of his Gambino predecessor.

While LoCascio did not utter a word on the tapes surrounding the DiBono killing, prosecutors argued that his mere presence in the room when Gotti hatched the scheme insinuated that he was guilty, since his job as underboss was to advise Gotti and, when necessary, correct him.

Twenty-seven years later, however, in 2018, a statemnet from Gambino turncoat Gravano shed new light on the DiBono murder, arguing that LoCascio had not wanted to have him killed.

Gotti never got his wish to see LoCascio dead, as the Teflon Don perished in prison himself two decades prior

The La Cosa Nostra snitch said, in an official court statement, that LoCascio 'had no role in the planning of, nor did he participate in any way in the murder.'

In fact, the mob rat claims, LoCascio tried to save DiBono’s life.

In a recorded conversation from 1989, LoCascio can be heard trying to calm Gotti down, assuring the Gambino boss that DiBono would hand over $50,000 to make up for missing the meeting in question, the court papers state.

'Shortly after this conversation, Gotti told me that he strongly resented LoCascio’s suggestion that he take the money and forget about killing DiBono,' Gravano’s statement reads.

Gravano said that Locascio’s failed attempt to spare DiBono’s life cost him his number-two spot in the Gambino crime family.

Gravano was then bumped up to the position of underboss, while Locascio was demoted to acting consigliere.

LoCascio son, Sal, followed in his father's footsteps,becoming a made man and a big-time captain like his dad in the 90s, but was busted for a pornography fraud scam in the mid-2000s.

He is now retired from mob life and living in Florida, after finishing a four-year federal prison stint in 2008.

'He literally had not been aware of what had transpired': Kerry claims Biden had no idea that the AUKUS deal angered France as Blinken meets Macron to try and mend the rift

2021-10-05T22:22:00.005-07:00

Climate envoy John Kerry made an extraordinary admission to French TV on Monday that President Biden 'literally had not been aware' of the fallout of the AUKUS submarine deal that caused France to lose a $90billion submarine contract.

'He literally had not been aware of what had transpired,' Kerry, who serves as President Biden's climate envoy, told French broadcaster BFMTV.

Kerry made the comment in an interview conducted in both French and English that aired Monday, while US diplomats including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken tried to heal the rift with the French during meetings in Paris.

The French government said it was stabbed in the back by its close allies over the nuclear-powered submarine deal - part of the so-called AUKUS security pact between the United States, Australia and Britain announced on Sept. 15 - and the wounds would take time to heal.

'And I don’t want to go into the details of it, but suffice it to say, that the president, my president is very committed to strengthening the relationship and making sure that this is a small event of the past and moving on to the much more important future,' said Kerry.

As Kerry explained, 'President Biden asked me about it, and I told him.' His interviewer pressed: 'You told Joe Biden that it was not the right ...'

Kerry interjected: 'He asked me. He said, "What's the situation?" And I explained exactly. He had not been aware of that,' said Kerry.

'He literally had not been aware of what had transpired,' US climate envoy John Kerry told French TV, while discussing the US security deal with the UK and Australia and the French reaction

Secretary of State Antony Blinken attended a meeting with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and was to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in an effort to smooth a rift in US-French relations

Kerry evidently did not intend to convey that Biden had been unaware that the decision to make a new security arrangement with Britain and Australia from the French would upset Paris.

'Secretary Kerry was clearly referring to French sentiment. He has consistently reiterated in both public and private that U.S.-French cooperation is essential to confronting the climate crisis,' a Kerry spokeswoman told DailyMail.com.

His comments came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken took another step toward seeking to heal the rupture with France by meeting with French President Emanuel Macron in Paris and discussing France's push for more NATO security cooperation.

The top U.S. diplomat is in Paris seeking to rebuild ties after a security pact between the three countries that infuriated the French president after Canberra scuttled a submarine defense contract initially valued at $40 billion for French diesel-electric subs.

Blinken told Macron that Washington was 'certainly supportive of European defense and security initiatives' that can increase capabilities but do not undermine the NATO alliance, a senior U.S. State Department official said.

'We view that as a complement to NATO and the president's (Joe Biden's) commitment to NATO, as you all know, is ironclad,' the official said.

Their meeting came after French ambassador to the US Philippe Etienne returned to Washington after being recalled from his post amid the rift. Etienne met with White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan early this month in preparation for the meeting and to 'rebuild trust.'

French officials have emphasized that AUKUS was a wake up call for EU states and that they should respond to the recent crisis between Paris and Washington by ending the bloc's naivety when it comes to defending its interests and building its own military capacity within the NATO framework.

Macron affirmed to Blinken that France agreed any new initiative should not be in competition with NATO, according to the U.S. official, who briefed reporters in Paris after Blinken met Macron, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Macron's diplomatic adviser Emmanuel Bonne.

Le Drian had taken Blinken on a walking tour of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs at Quai d'Orsay lasting more than an hour before the pair sat down for a meeting. Blinken then met Macron for 30-40 minutes at the presidential Élysée Palace, where he also spoke separately with Bonne.

Blinken later attended meetings of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.

French President Emmanuel Macron last month termed the nixing of a French submarine contract with Australia 'unacceptable behavior' and recalled France's ambassador from Washington

Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tony Blinken, Secretary of State of the United States during their meeting French Minister of Foreign Affairs receives the Secretary of State of the United States at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs quai d'Orsay, Paris, France

President Joe Biden participates is a virtual press conference on national security with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on September 15, 2021. The move infuriated the French government, which had been informed only hours before

White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan laid the groundwork for Tuesday's meeting with French ambassador Philippe Etienne

France briefly withdrew its ambassador to the United States over the affair, before Macron and U.S. President Joe Biden spoke by phone and agreed to hold in-depth consultations.

The official described Blinken's meetings with French officials as 'very cordial and amicable' and focused on future cooperation rather than 'relitigation' of the AUKUS spat.

Blinken also discussed French proposals for more security and counterterrorism cooperation in the Sahel region of West Africa, the U.S. official said, adding that Washington was still reviewing those proposals.

The official declined to give specifics of what might be agreed, saying that Blinken's discussions would 'tee up' a meeting later this month between Biden and Macron, the details of which are yet to be announced.

Blinken, who was not initially expected to meet Macron during the visit, found the meeting 'very positive', the official said.

'President Macron reiterated that, you know, let's turn this into an opportunity to deepen and strengthen cooperation and coordination, from the Euro-Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific to Africa,' the official said, adding that both sides agreed there was still a lot of work to do on the relationship.

Millions panicked when Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp crashed on Monday, writes TOM LEONARD, so how would we survive a web-free dark age?

2021-10-05T22:22:00.003-07:00

For six hours on Monday, billions of people and millions of businesses around the world must have felt as if the sky had fallen in.

Restaurants suddenly couldn't take any orders, shopkeepers couldn't sell their products and ordinary people across the globe discovered that their principal means of communicating with each other had been blacked out.

From Delaware to Delhi to Doncaster, nobody was spared.

At the Conservative party conference in Manchester, Tory aides spent hours desperately trying to teach tech-unsavvy MPs alternative ways of communicating online.

Young special advisers complained that they might have just as easily used carrier pigeons.

To those who have wondered whether all the talk of the titanic power of social media is just so much Silicon Valley hype, the crash of Facebook and its stable of associated apps and services, including Instagram and WhatsApp, provided a salutary riposte.

A world that has come to rely on the internet even more heavily since the pandemic began has discovered the alarming flipside of over-dependency on Big Tech.

For six hours on Monday, Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp suffered a global outage.

The outages began at around 4.40pm in the UK and services only started to return at around 10.45pm.

For a few strange hours, it was as if the world's biggest social media giant (used by 3.5 billion people) no longer existed.

Facebook, which makes most of its money from selling adverts, not only lost an estimated $80 million in revenue and had $50 billion wiped off its share price, but had to contend with the humiliation of its staff publicly admitting they couldn't even get into their offices as their digital badges had stopped working.

'It's mayhem over here,' one minion bleated.

The web giant and its dead-eyed founder Mark Zuckerberg (whose own gargantuan fortune fell by $7 billion) have many detractors, but yesterday the company said that 'no malicious activity' had been behind the meltdown.

It instead indicated that human error was to blame, citing 'faulty configuration changes' on its network which had interrupted the traffic flowing between its data centres.

This had a 'cascading effect' which brought its services to a halt.

Yet, contrary to time-honoured IT department lore, on this occasion it wasn't just a question of turning it off and on again.

Other social media sites such as Twitter were left to pick up the slack.

Instagram-famous celebrities including singers Adele and Dolly Parton and actress Reese Witherspoon reacted to the mass influx on Twitter, especially after the latter jokingly tweeted: 'Hello literally everyone.'

Adele commented: 'Hiya babes!' Actress and singer Bette Midler tried to make a serious point, writing: 'Facebook and Instagram are down.

'I guess that's a good thing; a few hours respite for the poor kids who are bullied incessantly on those sites.

'All the adults in the room are hoping the stay down.'

Social media frequently suffer outages but in this case the problem was compounded because Facebook's infrastructure is protected by its own security systems.

These too were crippled, locking out its engineers (some even locked out of their buildings) so they couldn't identify the problem, let alone fix it.

Insiders say the nightmare eventually ended and service was restored after a team of engineers was able to get access to Facebook's server computers at a data centre in Santa Clara, California, and reset them.

Mr Zuckerberg, not normally given to public displays of contrition, personally apologised on his Facebook page (when it was back up).

'Sorry for the disruption today — I know how much you rely on our services to stay connected with the people you care about,' he wrote.

Facebook lost $80 million in revenue and £36.7 billion was wiped from its share price. Mr Zuckerberg, not normally given to public displays of contrition, personally apologised on his Facebook page (when it was back up)

Facebook, which the dentist's son created in his dorm room as a way for leering male Harvard students to rate female peers on their attractiveness, has come to dominate the social media landscape by swallowing up its rivals and relentlessly expanding its reach and appeal.

Even by Silicon Valley's unethical standards, it has a reputation for ruthlessness and toxic greed.

WHAT IS THE DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

The Domain Name System, or DNS, is the directory of the internet.

Whenever you click on a link, send an email, open a mobile app, often one of the first things that has to happen is your device needs to look up the address of a domain.

There are two sides of the DNS network: the authoritative side, ie webpages and other content, and the resolver side, devices that are trying to access this content.

Every domain needs to have an authoritative DNS provider, servers which store DNS records. Amazon, Cloudflare and Google are among the bigger names in authoritative DNS server provision.

On the other side of the DNS system are resolvers. Every device that connects to the Internet needs a DNS resolver.

By default, these resolvers are automatically set by whatever network you're connecting to.

So, for most Internet users, when they connect to an ISP, or a WiFi hot spot, or a mobile network, the network operator will dictate what DNS resolver to use.

The problem is that these DNS services are often slow and don't respect your privacy.

What many Internet users don't realise is that even if you're visiting a website that is encrypted, indicated by the green padlock in your browser's address bar, that doesn't keep your DNS resolver from knowing the identity of all the sites you visit.

That means, by default, your ISP, every WiFi network you've connected to, and your mobile network provider have a list of every site you've visited while using them.

And while many of us manage to live our lives disconnected from social media and — successive studies have shown — are probably happier for it, Facebook has gone far beyond its original role of providing a handy means for friends and family to stay in touch and share the odd smug photo of their summer holidays.

Through its myriad subsidiaries — which include picture-sharing platform Instagram and messaging services WhatsApp and Messenger and virtual reality firm Oculus — Facebook has established a stranglehold on many areas of internet communication, dominating everything from the way politicians communicate with voters to how businesses advertise for customers.

Many of the latter no longer have their own websites but just rely on their Facebook page. In much of the developing world, where Facebook is investing heavily in its endless quest for new users, its products are essentially a gateway to the internet.

Having a Facebook page can make online life simpler as it can be used to sign in to many non-Facebook apps and services such as shopping websites or internet-connected domestic devices such as smart TVs and heating systems.

However, the latest shambles at Facebook and the alarming shockwaves the breakdown caused for six hours across the world give a terrifying glimpse of how dependent we are on digital technology today — and how vulnerable the world is when it goes wrong.

The consequences of a much wider internet blackout would be catastrophic.

Without the internet, financial transactions would grind to a halt; banks would have to stop all withdrawals and business would cease to function, while in shops in our cashless society, no one would be able to buy anything.

Businesses would collapse — for so many of them, the internet is vital to their supply-chain management and much else.

An outage that lasted days would freeze transportation systems and render airline booking systems useless, while utility companies dependent on smart grid systems could be crippled leading to blackouts.

David Kennedy, a cyber security specialist who used to work at the National Security Agency in America, warned: 'In a lot of cases, it could shut down a large percentage of our infrastructure. We would be completely blacked out.

'We wouldn't be able to leverage any technology, and it would be a complete cataclysmic downfall of a lot of our infrastructure.'

In hospitals, patients' records would be inaccessible, and radiology studies and test results would be unavailable.

These could mean the difference between life and death.

Little wonder that fighting cybercrime has become such a vital area of national security.

Experts say it is unlikely that the entire global internet network would go down at once because it is a massive and decentralised network of computers and machines.

Facebook indicated that human error was to blame, citing 'faulty configuration changes' on its network which had interrupted the traffic flowing between its data centres. This had a 'cascading effect' which brought its services to a halt. Above: A Facebook staff member reportedly accidentally deleted large sections of the code which keeps the website online

But in Facebook's case, the outage could not have come at a worse time, as the controversial company faces increased political scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic.

It weathered a 2018 furore over its supplying the private data on millions of Facebook users to Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct British political data firm.

However it may not be so lucky this time in resisting calls for it to be far more tightly regulated and perhaps even broken up.

EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said the latest chaos underscored the need for the overbearing company to have more rivals.

Yesterday, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen was on Capitol Hill telling a U.S. Senate sub-committee considering children's online safety of the company's many sins and the 'crisis' at the heart of the tech sector.

Senators said her revelations considerably strengthened the case for tougher regulations for the tech industry — including on privacy and competition laws, establishing special safeguards for children, more transparent social media algorithms and more accountability from the notoriously haughty Silicon Valley billionaires.

'They know they are guilty,' said Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn witheringly.

Ms Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, has already supplied the Wall Street Journal, politicians and regulators with thousands of pages of internal documents that damningly exposed the company's awareness of the harm that its products and decisions were causing.

She has filed complaints to U.S. regulators claiming Facebook misled investors, making virtuous public statements about tackling harmful content while at the same time failing to act on those internal documents.

Her disclosures led to Facebook shares losing around 13 per cent of their value.

Ms Haugen told senators she'd swallowed the Silicon Valley 'Save The World' spiel like so many who work there, joining because she thought it had the 'potential to bring out the best in us'.

Instead, she said: 'I am here today because I believe that Facebook's products harm children, stoke division, weaken our democracy and much more.'

She said the company's leadership 'knows ways to make Facebook and Instagram safer and won't make the necessary changes' because they continue to put 'its astronomical profits before people'.

That leadership includes former Lib Dem leader Sir Nick Clegg, its richly-remunerated 'vice president for policy and global affairs'.

The ex-deputy Prime Minister, notes the U.S. media, was once a 'political idealist' but is now Facebook's 'lead apologist'.

Ms Haugen's leaks have revealed how Facebook's own research has shown how it magnifies hate and misinformation, fuelling an already polarised world and in some parts of the world sparking violence.

And that violence included the notorious January 6 attack on Congress by Trump supporters.

The leaks also showed that the company was aware that Instagram can harm the mental health of teenage girls.

A popular accusation against Facebook is that it has hooked teenagers on its apps but Ms Haugen's revelations are, if anything, more disturbing.

They show that teens are abandoning the social media platform in growing numbers and that, instead, Facebook bosses are turning their attention to even younger children.

Facebook has denied it encourages 'bad content' or puts profits before society's wellbeing

While the company insists it's trying to make the internet safer for children through controversial innovations such as Instagram Kids, Ms Haugen revealed how Facebook sees them as an untapped source of growth, creepily discussing ways to 'leverage play dates' to hook the young.

Meanwhile, internal Facebook research estimated that 30 per cent of teenage girls felt Instagram made dissatisfaction with their body worse, while 13.5 per cent said Instagram makes thoughts of suicide worse and 17 per cent said it makes eating disorders worse.

And as they became more depressed, they used Instagram even more, studies showed.

Ms Haugen generously doesn't believe her former colleagues are evil but insists their 'incentives are misaligned', explaining: 'Facebook makes more money when you consume more content.

'People enjoy engaging with things that elicit an emotional reaction. And the more anger that they get exposed to, the more they interact and the more they consume.'

Echoing the views of others, Ms Haugen said: 'I've seen a bunch of social networks and it was substantially worse at Facebook than anything I'd seen before.'

Facebook has denied it encourages 'bad content' or puts profits before society's wellbeing.

Clegg — reportedly on a £2.7 million after being recruited to save Facebook's mangled reputation — has argued that politicians shouldn't shoot the messenger and that Facebook just reflects the debates playing out in society.

A Facebook spokesperson responded to Ms Haugen's testimony yesterday saying that she had worked at the company for less than two years, had no direct reports and never attended a decision-point meeting with relevant executives, adding: 'We don't agree with her characterisation of the many issues she testified about.'

However, she said the company agreed 'it's time to begin to create standard rules for the internet'.

Meanwhile, as Facebook and Instagram devotees spent a few hours unhooked from their drip-feed, some discovered what may be Silicon Valley's darkest secret.

That life without social media can be really quite exhilarating. Bette Midler wasn't alone in wishing they'd gone for good.

Royal Mail starts DRONE delivery trial with unmanned craft capable of carrying 100kg of parcels tested on route between remote Scottish islands

2021-10-05T22:22:00.001-07:00

Drones are being used to deliver post to a remote Scottish island as part of a Royal Mail trial to reduce carbon emissions.

The company has started a two-week test of scheduled, autonomous flights between Kirkwall and North Ronaldsay in the Orkney Islands in conjunction with Windracers Ltd.

As well as reducing carbon emissions, it is hoped the trial will help better connect remote island communities.

The post is being carried by a large, twin-engine, UK-built unmanned aerial vehicle named Ultra which can transport 100kg of post of all shapes and sizes - equivalent to a typical delivery round.

Drones are being used to deliver post to a remote Scottish island as part of a Royal Mail trial to reduce carbon emissions

Letters and parcels will be delivered by the local postie in the usual way when they reach the island, which is further north than the southern tip of Norway and is home to around 70 people.

The trial is part of the Sustainable Aviation Test Environment project based at Kirkwall Airport.

'We care about delivering a brilliant service for all of our customers, wherever they live in the UK. We are also incredibly passionate about protecting our diverse and beautiful environments.

'This trial is designed to help with both of these goals, using the most innovative technologies to support the remote and isolated communities we serve in the greenest way possible, Nick Landon, chief commercial officer at Royal Mail, said.

If the trial is successful, the technology will be considered by Royal Mail to support postmen and postwomen in delivering to very remote areas and addresses across the UK.

The company has started a two-week test of scheduled, autonomous flights between Kirkwall and North Ronaldsay in the Orkney Islands in conjunction with Windracers Ltd

UAVs can fly in poor weather conditions, including fog, because they are uncrewed, and unlike boat services they are not affected by tides.

'North Ronaldsay is a very remote area of the UK and I'm proud to be involved in an initiative that will help Royal Mail to do all we can to keep all areas of the UK connected,' local North Ronaldsay postwoman Sarah Moore said.

Charles Scales, chief executive officer at Windracers, said the firm is 'delighted' to be operating one of its Ultra UAVs to North Ronaldsay for Royal Mail.

'Our autonomous system will deliver an all-weather service for the community and significantly lower carbon emissions.'

This is the third drone trial that Royal Mail has taken part in over the last year.

In December 2020, Royal Mail delivered a parcel via drone to a remote lighthouse on the Isle of Mull, which it said was a first for a nationwide UK parcel carrier.

UAVs can fly in poor weather conditions, including fog, because they are uncrewed, and unlike boat services they are not affected by tides

In May 2021 it trialled an out of sight drone parcel delivery with Windracers Ltd, and the first inter-island deliveries on the Isles of Scilly which it also described as UK firsts.

The trial between Kirkwall and North Ronaldsay began on Monday and runs until Friday October 15, with flights taking place on weekdays.

The Sate project is funded by UK Research and Innovation via the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.

Dougie Cook, Highland and Islands Airports Limited general manager north, said: 'This is a significant trial for UAVs that form an important part of the Sate project.

'The facilities at Kirkwall Airport provide an ideal testing centre for this innovative application of UAV technology, which could bring practical benefits to the communities that HIAL serves.'

Tony Abbott flies to Taiwan to meet with the President as an official says the country is 'preparing for WAR' with China

2021-10-05T22:21:00.005-07:00

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has landed in Taiwan to give a speech and meet the country's president amid rising tensions with China.

Mr Abbott - who led Australia from 2013 to 2015 - will on Friday speak at the Yushan forum, a conference organised by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation.

He will also have unofficial meetings with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.

Mr Abbott was filmed landing at Taiwan's Taoyuan airport after flying from Singapore. He was greeted by deputy minister of foreign affairs Tien Chung-kwang (pictured together)

The Chinese aircraft have not been flying in Taiwan's air space, but its air defence identification zone or ADIZ (pictured in the yellow box), a broader area Taiwan monitors and patrols to give it more time to respond to any threats

The visit comes after Taiwan reported 148 Chinese air force planes had flown over its air defence zone over a four day period beginning on Friday, the same day China marked a key patriotic holiday, National Day.

On Monday Mr Wu told the ABC program China Tonight that Taiwan is preparing for war.

'The defence of Taiwan is in our own hands, and we are absolutely committed to that,' he said.

'I'm sure that if China is going to launch an attack against Taiwan, I think they are going to suffer tremendously as well.'

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull spoke at the Yushan forum last year but made his remarks virtually from Australia due to pandemic travel restrictions.

Mr Abbott was filmed landing at Taiwan's Taoyuan airport after flying from Singapore.

34 J-16 fighters (file image) were among 52 Chinese planes flown into Taiwan's ADIZ

Mr Tien and Mr Abbott were heard discussing lockdown rules and Covid-19 swabs in English as they walked through the terminal

He was greeted by deputy minister of foreign affairs Tien Chung-kwang and the pair were heard discussing lockdown rules and Covid-19 swabs in English as they walked through the terminal.

They also discussed Australia's new airport in western Sydney and the Liberal Democrats, a new political party set up by former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory as has vowed to take it by force if necessary while Taiwan says it is an independent country and will defend its freedoms and democracy.

The tensions are being viewed with increasing concern by the international community.

Japan and Australia on Tuesday urged the two to talk, while the United States said it has been 'conveying clear messages' after what it described as destabilising activities by China.

Military officers hold flowers walk to pay respects to the People's Heroes Monument during a ceremony to mark Martyr's Day at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on September 30

Shortly before the Chinese jets appeared in the skies near Taiwan, the Beijing-owned Global Times newspaper threatened Taipei and Australia

Taiwan calls China's repeated nearby military activities 'grey zone' warfare, designed to both wear out Taiwan's forces by making them repeatedly scramble, and also to test Taiwan's responses.

'Taiwan must be on alert. China is more and more over the top,' Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporters in Taipei.

'The world has also seen China's repeated violations of regional peace and pressure on Taiwan.'

Taiwan needs to 'strengthen itself' and come together as one, he added.

'Only then will countries that want to annex Taiwan not dare to easily resort to force. Only when we help ourselves can others help us.'

The Chinese aircraft have not been flying in Taiwan's air space, but its air defence identification zone or ADIZ, a broader area Taiwan monitors and patrols to give it more time to respond to any threats.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has made modernising the armed forces a priority, focusing on the use of new, mobile weapons to make any attack by China as costly as possible, turning Taiwan into a 'porcupine'.

In an article for the US magazine Foreign Affairs released on Tuesday, Tsai said Taiwan falling to China would trigger 'catastrophic' consequences for peace in Asia.

Tsai said Taiwan does not seek military confrontation 'but if its democracy and way of life are threatened, Taiwan will do whatever it takes to defend itself.'

President Tsai Ing-wen (pictured in October 2020 in Taipei) vowed to 'do whatever it takes' to guard Taiwan against invasion

Canadian woman is fined $60,000 for feeding black bears 180 eggs, 10 cases of apples and 50 pounds of carrots a WEEK and 'creating public safety risk' that forced them to euthanize the bears

2021-10-05T22:21:00.003-07:00

A Canadian woman was hit with a $60,000 fine for feeding wild black bears a veritable feast, 'creating a public safety risk' that forced officials to euthanize the animals.

Whistler resident Zuzana Stevikova is accused of violating the Wildlife Act in British Columbia after purchasing ten cases of apples, 50 pounds of carrots and 180 eggs per week to feed the wild animals during the summer of 2018.

In July 2018, the Conservation Officer Service - an agency that investigates human-wildlife conflict prevention - received a complaint that someone had been feeding black bears in the Kadenwood neighborhood, according to the agency's Facebook page.

The illegal feeding led to three black bears, pictured, being euthanized after they became so used to their weekly feedings that they no longer showed fear of humans

Pictured: one of the three black bears that officials were forced to euthanize after a Canadian woman fed them throughout the summer of 2018

Their investigation determined that Stevikova was feeding the animals on her property throughout the summer of 2018, and would purchase more food for the bears every week.

Stevikova was charged with leaving 'matter to attract dangerous wildlife,' and 'feeding or attempt to feed dangerous wildlife.'

'Bulk produce — including up to 10 cases of apples, 50 pounds of carrots and up to 15 dozen eggs — was purchased on a weekly basis to feed the bears,' the Conservation Officer Service said Friday on Facebook.

'These activities created an extraordinary public safety risk by conditioning bears to human food and presence.'

Another co-accused Canadian, Oliver Dugan, was hit with similar charges, however his charges were stayed, meaning the Crown has decided not to prosecute his case, as per Canadian law, according to the Vancouver Sun.

'The suspects allegedly purchased large quantities of apples, carrots, pears, eggs and almonds to leave out for the animals,' officials explained in the Facebook post.

The illegal feeding led to three black bears being euthanized after they became so used to their weekly feedings that they no longer showed fear of humans while causing property damage throughout the neighborhood.

'Illegally feeding or placing attractants to lure dangerous wildlife, such as bears, is an extremely dangerous activity,' Conservation Officer Service Sgt. Simon Gravel said on Facebook.

'Once bears learn to associate humans with food, it creates a public safety risk.'

$60,000 is the highest penalty ever imposed under the Wildlife Act, with authorities claiming the case as 'precedent-setting' for anyone similarly charged in the future.

Steve Jobs' family releases emotional statement on the tenth anniversary of Apple tycoon's death: 'Memory is inadequate for what is in our hearts. We miss him profoundly'

2021-10-05T22:21:00.001-07:00

The family of tech mogul Steve Jobs released an emotional statement on Apple's website on Tuesday to mark the tenth anniversary of his death.

Jobs died on October 5, 2011 following an eight-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

Apple also paid tribute to its late boss with a short film posted on the front of their website, showing the highlights of Jobs' career.

The tech guru co-founded Apple in 1976, before being forced out in 1985. But he returned in 1997, and pioneered the iPhone and iPads which transformed it into the $2.3 trillion company it is today.

The statement from Jobs' family: 'For a decade now, mourning and healing have gone together. Our gratitude has become as great as our loss.

'Each of us has found his or her own path to consolation, but we have come together in a beautiful place of love for Steve, and for what he taught us.

'For all of Steve’s gifts, it was his power as a teacher that has endured. He taught us to be open to the beauty of the world, to be curious around new ideas, to see around the next corner, and most of all to stay humble in our own beginner’s mind.

Steve Jobs' family released on statement on Tuesday in honor of the 10th anniversary of his death

The statement and a tribute video for Jobs was shared on the Apple website

'There are many things we still see through his eyes, but he also taught to look for ourselves. He gave us equipment for living, and it has served us well.

'One of our greatest sources of consolation has been our association of Steve with beauty. The sight of something beautiful — a wooded hillside, a well‑made object — recalls his spirit to us. Even in his years of suffering, he never lost his faith in the beauty of existence.

'Memory is inadequate for what is in our hearts: we miss him profoundly. We were blessed to have him as husband and father.'

Jobs with his wife Laurene Powell Jobs (far right) with their three children Eve (left center), Reed and Erin (right center) in Ravello, Italy in 2003

Jobs is pictured with his first-born daughter Lisa Brennan, who he shared with Chris-Ann Brennan, at his home in Palo Alto in 1989

Jobs and his wife Laurene are seen at a Pixar Exhibit Launch at the Museum of Modern Art in New York

The memorial video that was created featured a slideshow of pictures from Jobs' life as well as a series of his most popular quotes.

'I think you always had to be different to buy an Apple computer,' Jobs said. 'And you still have to think differently to buy an Apple computer.'

'And I think the people that do buy them, they are the people that are not just out to get a job done--they're out to change the world.'

Other friends, collaborators and fellow tech moguls also released statements in tribute to Jobs.

'You can’t be following the rules and making amazing things happen. Steve was certainly exceptional in that regard,' Michael Dell, founder of Dell Technologies said.

Sir Jonathan Ive, Apple's former chief design officer and Jobs' close friend, released a tribute of his own to the Wall Street Journal.

'He truly believed that by making something useful, empowering and beautiful, we express our love for humanity ... I miss Steve desperately and I will always miss not talking with him,' Ives wrote.

Current Apple CEO Tim Cook also paid tribute to Jobs as he posted the video on Twitter and shared one of his favorite former collaborator's quotes

Current Apple CEO Tim Cook, who took over from Jobs in 2011, tweeted the tribute video and a quote from the late founder.

'People with passion can change the world for the better.' -- SJ,' the caption read.

'Hard to believe it's been 10 years. Celebrating you today and always.'

Jobs was born to University of Wisconsin students Abdulfuttah Jandali and Joanna Schieble on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco, California, but was put up for adoption.

Clara and Paul Jobs adopted the baby and gave him the name Steve Jobs.

Jobs did not meet his biological parents until he was 31, when he also met his sister, author Mona Simpson.

His adoptive parents encouraged Jobs' future interest in technology by having him experiment with electronics in their garage.

The young Jobs grew up and went to Reed College before dropping after a short enrollment period.

Jobs created Apple with his friend computer technician Steve Wozniak, who invented the Apple Computer I in 1976

After he dropped out, Jobs began working at video game company Atari where he met computer technician Steve Wozniak.

The pair invented the Apple Computer I in 1976 and started Apple in Jobs' garage in Silicon Valley.

Since the beginning, the company was praised for its innovative ability to make large tech devices smaller and cheaper.

But Jobs was fired by Apple just nine years later after clashing with other senior managers, following a series of failed products that were believed to be affecting the company.

The tech guru was also facing personal family problems of his own, including a complicated relationship with his estranged daughter.

In 1978, Jobs had a child with Chrisann Brennan named Lisa who he continually denied was his daughter and did not maintain a relationship with her for nine years.

A couple years after leaving Apple, Jobs finally began accepting Lisa as his daughter.

Jobs married American businesswoman Laurene Powell Jobs in 1991 and shared three children with her named Reed, Erin and Eve.

He returned to Apple in 1997 after they bought the software company NeXT, which Jobs had founded the previous year.

When he returned to the company in 1997, it was worth 2.3billion. By the time of his death it was worth $351billion.

As of Monday, Apple was worth more than $2.3trillion - making it the world's most valuable company.

The new products introduced by Jobs during his second tenure as boss revolutionized the technology sector for a generation.

Perhaps most influentially, Jobs in 2001 launched the iPod, which offered '1,000 songs in your pocket' and changed the music industry landscape with iTunes.

And despite his 2003 pancreatic cancer diagnosis, Jobs continued to lead the company.

In 2007 came the touch-screen iPhone, joined a year later by Apple's App Store, where developers could sell iPhone 'apps'. The move made the phone a device not just for making calls but also for managing money, editing photos, playing games and social networking.

And in 2010, Jobs introduced the iPad, a tablet-sized, all-touch computer that took off even though market analysts said no one really needed one.

He died at the age of 56 on October 5, 2011.

Jobs was known for creating revolutionary modern gadgets such as the iPod which was made in 2001

Sir Jonathan Ive WSJ Statement for 10th Anniversary of Jobs' death

Steve Jobs’ top design officer fondly remembered his ‘best friend and creative partner’ as someone who was ‘not distracted by money or power’ nearly 10 years to the day that the late Apple co-founder died of pancreatic cancer.

‘I think about Steve every day,’ writes Sir Jony Ive, the English-American industrial designer, was Apple’s chief design officer who helped create the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

He also helped design Apple's massive circular campus, Apple Park, in Cupertino, California.

Ive publicly addresses Jobs’ death for the first time on Monday, writing in WSJ. Magazine: 'I can talk happily for hours describing the remarkable man I loved so deeply.'

He poignantly recalls the last moments he spent with Jobs.

'Steve's last words to me were that he would miss talking together,' Ive writes.

'I was sitting on the floor next to his bed, my back against the wall.

'After he died, I walked out into the garden. I remember the sound of the latch on the wooden door as I gently pulled it closed.'

Ive recalls: 'In the garden, I sat and thought how talking often gets in the way of listening and thinking.

'Perhaps that is why so much of our time together was spent quietly.

'I miss Steve desperately and I will always miss not talking with him.'

He called the 15 years he spent working alongside Jobs as ‘some of the happiest, most creative and joyful times of my life.’

'He was without doubt the most inquisitive human I have ever met,' Ive writes in the Journal.

'His insatiable curiosity was not limited or distracted by his knowledge or expertise, nor was it casual or passive.

'It was ferocious, energetic and restless. His curiosity was practiced with intention and rigor.'

Ive says Jobs’ relentless drive to create Apple products was an expression of his ‘love and appreciation for our species.’

‘He truly believed that by making something useful, empowering and beautiful, we express our love for humanity,’ according to Ives.

Ive writes that he remains close to Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs.

'Our families have been close for nearly 30 years,' Ive writes.

'We have endured deaths and celebrated births. We talk all the time, often about Steve but rarely about my work with him.'

He adds: 'When her brilliant and inquisitive children ask me about their dad I just cannot help myself.

'I can talk happily for hours describing the remarkable man I loved so deeply.'

Nikki Haley says the Republican party NEEDS Trump because he can 'get strong people elected' and agrees to 'consult him' before she decides to run in 2024

2021-10-05T22:20:00.007-07:00

Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said on Tuesday that the Republican Party needed former President Trump and that she would talk to him if she decided to run for president in 2024.

The former South Carolina governor is due to deliver a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on Tuesday evening - the latest 2024 hopeful to do so.

Like others in the running, she will have to navigate the Trump-shaped shadow hanging over the contest.

'He has a strong legacy from his administration,' she told the Wall Street Journal.

'He has the ability to get strong people elected, and he has the ability to move the ball, and I hope that he continues to do that.

'We need him in the Republican Party. I don’t want us to go back to the days before Trump.'

Nikki Haley is due to deliver a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on Tuesday evening - the latest 2024 hopeful to do so

Like all 2024 Republican hopefuls Haley must deal with the Trump-shaped shadow having over the contest. On Tuesday she said 'We need him in the Republican Party'

Her comments reflect the dilemma facing all the candidates considering a 2024 run: How much do they embrace a figure who excites the party base, but whose presidency ended in defeat at the polls and his supporters attacking the U.S. Congress?

Earlier this year, Haley, 49, tried one way. In January, soon after the Jan. 6 assault, she said: 'His actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history.'

It brought an immediate backlash and a softer tone.

As well as the recent ridicule of her former boss.

'Every time she criticizes me, she uncriticizes me about 15 minutes later,' he told Vanity Fair.

Now she is trying another way, calling the former president a friend and saying she would consult him on her future plans.

'In the beginning of 2023, should I decide that there’s a place for me, should I decide that there’s a reason to move, I would pick up the phone and meet with the president,' she said.

'I would talk to him and see what his plans are. I would tell him about my plans. We would work on it together.'

That marks a shift in her previous position that she would not run if Trump chose to.

And in her interview, she found other ways to distance herself from the former president.

Trump appointed Haley to be his U.N. ambassador but the two have had a difficult relationship since the Jan. 6 violence

'There was fraud in the election, but I don’t think that the numbers were so big that it swayed the vote in the wrong direction,' she said, offering a tiny concession to Trump before denying his bigger claim that he should be president now.

Haley was one of the few senior figures in the Trump administration who managed to step down with her reputation intact. Diplomats at the United Nations praised her work in representing the U.S. and she emerged as an early frontrunner to win the Republican nomination.

Her background as the daughter of Indian immigrants is another plus for a party that has sometimes struggled to keep up with the nation's changing demographics.

In her speech, Haley is not expected to focus on Trump. Instead, she will argue that the nation has moved away from its core values, to its detriment on the world stage.

'A large portion of our people are plagued by self-doubt or even by hatred of America,” she will say, according to an advance excerpts shared with The Wall Street Journal.

'It’s a pandemic much more damaging than any virus. Every day, more people think living in the land of the free is a curse, not a blessing.'

She will level some of the blame at the news media, school curricula and liberals.

'We’re told our founding principles are tools of oppression,' she is expected to say.

'We’re told the world’s freest and most prosperous country is no better than any other. In fact, we’re told it’s worse.'

Democrats's descent into identity politics offers Republicans an opportunity, she will say.

'Republicans cannot make the same mistake,' she will say, according to the excerpts.

'That message was our message first. We must once again take it to the American people.

'We’re fighting for a society where people are judged by actions, not color; where discrimination is ended, not embraced; where censorship is rejected, and free speech protected.'