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EU-Egypt Historic Aid Package Signed to Tackle Migration and Boost Development

Press Room — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 09:48:25 +0000

In a significant development in Cairo, the European Union and Egypt have embarked on a new chapter in their relations with the signing of an aid package deal, hailed as “historic” by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. This monumental agreement, aimed at curbing illegal migration and supporting development, marks a pivotal moment for both parties involved.

Historic Pact to Combat Illegal Migration

Speaking at the Egyptian-EU summit in Cairo, Meloni underscored the importance of addressing the root causes of illegal migration by promoting development within the African continent. She emphasized that ensuring citizens of Africa do not feel compelled to migrate towards Europe is crucial, a goal achievable only through sustainable development initiatives.

A Generous Aid to Support Egypt

The European Union has stepped forward with a substantial aid package for Egypt, amounting to 7.4 billion euros ($8 billion), in response to the growing economic challenges and potential migration pressures stemming from conflicts in neighboring countries. This financial assistance aims to bolster Egypt’s economy and manage migration more effectively.

The package includes a combination of grants and loans spread over the next three years, targeting various development projects in the Arab world’s most populous nation. A significant portion of the funds, 5 billion euros ($5.4 billion), is allocated as macro-financial assistance, showcasing the EU’s commitment to Egypt’s economic stability.

Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership

The deal, known as the Joint Declaration, was signed in a ceremony that saw the attendance of key figures, including Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, along with leaders from Belgium, Italy, Austria, Cyprus, and Greece. This agreement elevates the cooperation between Egypt and the EU to a “strategic and comprehensive partnership,” facilitating broader collaboration across economic and non-economic sectors.

Despite criticism from human rights groups regarding Egypt’s record, the EU and Egypt are determined to advance their partnership with a focus on democracy, fundamental freedoms, human rights, and gender equality. The aid package also includes measures to enhance border security, particularly with Libya, and support for Sudanese refugees in Egypt.

Addressing Regional Challenges

The cooperation extends to tackling challenges related to migration and terrorism, with the EU providing support to Egypt in hosting over 460,000 Sudanese refugees fleeing conflict. Additionally, the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict and its potential implications for regional stability underscore the importance of this EU-Egypt partnership.

With nearly 9 million migrants in Egypt, including around 480,000 registered refugees and asylum-seekers, the EU’s support is timely. It aims not only to manage migration flows but also to contribute to the economic integration and stability of the region.

The EU-Egypt aid package is a testament to the power of international cooperation in addressing global challenges. By focusing on development and strategic partnerships, the EU and Egypt are laying the groundwork for a more stable, prosperous future for the region, with the hope of mitigating the factors that drive illegal migration and ensuring the well-being of millions in need.

Putin’s Orchestrated Election Leaves Russians With No Other Choices

Press Room — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 09:41:00 +0000

The Kremlin stage-managed Russia’s presidential vote over the weekend to send a singular message at home and abroad: that President Vladimir V. Putin’s support is overwhelming and unshakable, despite or even because of his war against Ukraine.

From the moment the preliminary results first flashed across state television late Sunday, the authorities left no room for misinterpretation. Mr. Putin, they said, won more than 87 percent of the vote, his closest competitor just 4 percent. It had all the hallmarks of an authoritarian Potemkin plebiscite.

The Kremlin may have felt more comfortable orchestrating such a large margin of victory because Mr. Putin’s approval rating has climbed during the war in independent polls, owing to a rally-around-the flag effect and optimism about the Russian economy. The Levada Center, an independent pollster, reported last month that 86 percent of Russians approved of Mr. Putin, his highest rating in more than seven years.

But while the figures may suggest unabiding support for Mr. Putin and his agenda across Russia, the situation is more complex than the numbers convey. The leader of one opposition research group in Moscow has argued that backing for Mr. Putin is actually far more brittle than simple approval numbers suggest.

“The numbers we get on polls from Russia don’t mean what people think they mean,” said Aleksei Minyailo, a Moscow-based opposition activist and co-founder of a research project called Chronicles, which has been polling Russians in recent months. “Because Russia is not an electoral democracy but a wartime dictatorship.”

In a late January survey, Chronicles asked one group of Russian respondents what they wanted in key policy areas and a different group what they expected to see from Mr. Putin — and documented a substantive difference between desires and expectations.

More than half of respondents, for example, said they supported restoring relations with Western countries, but only 28 percent expected Mr. Putin to restore them. Some 58 percent expressed support for a truce with Ukraine, but only 29 percent expected Mr. Putin to agree to one.

“We see that Russians want different things from what they expect from Putin,” Mr. Minyailo said. “Probably if they did have any kind of alternative, they might make a different choice.”

Compelling alternative choices, however, have been systematically eliminated over the near quarter century that Mr. Putin has been in power in Russia.

Opposition figures have been exiled, jailed or killed. Independent news outlets have been driven out of the country. And a wave of repression unseen since the Soviet era has led to lengthy prison sentences for simple acts of dissent, such as critical social media posts.

Aleksei A. Navalny, the Russian opposition figure who carried the hopes of many Russians for an alternative to Mr. Putin, died under mysterious circumstances in an Arctic prison last month. After declaring victory late Sunday, Mr. Putin called Mr. Navalny’s death an “unfortunate incident.”

The war has only further closed what little space used to exist for alternatives to Mr. Putin’s agenda to gain traction in public.

“There is a sophisticated case to be made about why this war is so much against Russia’s interest, and that part of the spectrum is missing,” said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “It is now happening in exile, and the government is erecting a lot of barriers to people tapping into this content.”

By casting those against the war as saboteurs, he said, Mr. Putin’s regime has succeeded in making “the opposition something that is really unattractive — more for outsiders, not for mainstream people.”

In years past, Russia’s so-called “political technologists” allowed a semblance of competition and open debate in presidential elections to drive turnout and give the race a patina of authenticity. But this year they took no chances.

Yekaterina S. Duntsova, a relatively unknown TV journalist and former municipal deputy from a city 140 miles west of Moscow, tried to run for president on an antiwar platform but was swiftly disqualified. So was Boris B. Nadezhdin, another under-the-radar politician who collected more than 100,000 signatures required to enter the race but could not get on the ballot.

“They deemed both of them dangerous enough not to let them on the ballot,” Mr. Minyailo said. “That tells a lot, to my mind, about the nature of the regime and about how stalwart Putin’s position is. If his regime thinks there is a danger to letting a provincial journalist collect signatures, that tells a lot.”

Russian opinion polling regularly shows that a relatively small segment of the Russian population are die-hard supporters of Mr. Putin and a similarly sized group are aggressive opponents, many of them now abroad.

The majority, pollsters have found, are relatively apathetic, supporting Mr. Putin passively, with no other alternative coming onto their radar. They are particularly influenced by the narrative on television, which is controlled by the state.

“Deep wells of social inertia, apathy and atomization are the real source of Putin’s power,” Mr. Gabuev said. Many Russians, he said, don’t have a sophisticated framework for thinking about certain issues, because there is no public discussion taking place.

And those Russians who do articulate desires that differ from Mr. Putin’s actions are not necessarily willing to fight for what they want, Mr. Minyailo noted. Many Russians believe they have no influence on the country’s course of events.

Still, the increase in support for Mr. Putin among Russians in the two years since he ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine is unmistakable across multiple polls.

Denis Volkov, director of the Levada Center, said that a number of metrics showed consolidation around Mr. Putin.

“We monitor many indicators, not only approval rating,” Mr. Volkov said. “We ask open-ended questions. We ask about the economic situation. We ask about the mood of people. All these indicators are pointing in one direction.”

Armed with a vast propaganda apparatus, Mr. Putin has convinced millions of Russians that he is valiantly defending them against an antagonistic Western world bent on using Ukraine as a cudgel to destroy their nation and their way of life.

“The state narrative has generated this idea that it’s Russia versus everybody else,” said Katerina Tertytchnaya, a comparative politics professor at the University of Oxford. “ It’s very important, this narrative of being under siege. The lack of an alternative is also cited as one of the reasons that people support Putin. People cannot conceive of an alternative.”

It is not only that Mr. Putin seems superior to the alternative candidates that the Kremlin allows to appear on state television. He also comes across as a better choice compared to nearly all his historical predecessors.

“Putin’s first two terms and Putin overall — that’s the paradox, they really are the happiest life in the country’s history,” Mr. Gabuev said. “Because the combination of wealth and material prosperity and freedoms being present at the same time was never higher.”

White House’s Efforts to Combat Misinformation Face Supreme Court Test

Press Room — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 09:38:13 +0000

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday on whether the Biden administration violated the First Amendment in combating what it said was misinformation on social media platforms.

It is the latest in an extraordinary series of cases this term requiring the justices to assess the meaning of free speech in the internet era.

The case arose from a barrage of communications from administration officials urging platforms to take down posts on topics like the coronavirus vaccines, claims of election fraud and Hunter Biden’s laptop. Last year, a federal appeals court severely limited such interactions.

Alex Abdo, a lawyer with the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said the Supreme Court’s review of that decision must be sensitive to two competing values, both vital to democracy.

“This is an immensely important case that will determine the power of the government to pressure the social media platforms into suppressing speech,” he said. “Our hope is that the Supreme Court will clarify the constitutional line between coercion and persuasion. The government has no authority to threaten platforms into censoring protected speech, but it must have the ability to participate in public discourse so that it can effectively govern and inform the public of its views.”

The court this term has repeatedly grappled with fundamental questions about the scope of the government’s authority over major technology platforms. On Friday, the court set rules for when government officials can block users from their private social media accounts. Last month, the court considered the constitutionality of laws in Florida and Texas that limit large social media companies from making editorial judgments about which messages to allow.

Those four cases, along with the one on Monday, will collectively rebalance the power of the government and powerful technology platforms in the realm of free speech.

A second argument on Monday poses a related constitutional question about government power and free speech, though not in the context of social media sites. It concerns whether a state official in New York violated the First Amendment by encouraging companies to stop doing business with the National Rifle Association.

Monday’s first case, Murthy v. Missouri, No. 23-411, was brought by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, both Republicans, along with individuals who said their speech had been censored.

They did not dispute that the platforms were entitled to make independent decisions about what to feature on their sites. But they said the conduct of government officials in urging them to take down what they say is misinformation amounted to censorship that violated the First Amendment.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit agreed, saying that officials from the White House, the surgeon general’s office, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the F.B.I. had most likely crossed constitutional lines in their bid to persuade platforms to take down posts about what they had flagged as misinformation.

The panel, in an unsigned opinion, said the officials had become excessively entangled with the platforms or used threats to spur them to act. The panel entered an injunction forbidding many officials to coerce or significantly encourage social media companies to remove content protected by the First Amendment.

Two members of the panel, Judges Edith B. Clement and Jennifer W. Elrod, were appointed by President George W. Bush. The third, Judge Don R. Willett, was appointed by President Donald J. Trump.

The Biden administration filed an emergency application in September asking the Supreme Court to pause the injunction, saying that the government was entitled to express its views and to try to persuade others to take action.

“A central dimension of presidential power is the use of the office’s bully pulpit to seek to persuade Americans — and American companies — to act in ways that the president believes would advance the public interest,” Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar wrote.

In response, lawyers for the states wrote that the administration had violated the First Amendment. “The bully pulpit,” they wrote, “is not a pulpit to bully.”

The court granted the administration’s application, put the Fifth Circuit’s ruling on hold and agreed to hear the case.

Three justices dissented. “Government censorship of private speech is antithetical to our democratic form of government, and therefore today’s decision is highly disturbing,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch.

Justice Alito added: “At this time in the history of our country, what the court has done, I fear, will be seen by some as giving the government a green light to use heavy-handed tactics to skew the presentation of views on the medium that increasingly dominates the dissemination of news. That is most unfortunate.”

In a Supreme Court brief, the administration said it must be free to speak vigorously in pursuing its policy agenda. “So long as the government seeks to inform and persuade rather than to compel, its speech poses no First Amendment concern — even if government officials state their views in strong terms, and even if private actors change their speech or conduct in response,” the brief said.

There was no evidence, the brief added, that the government had coerced the platforms. “Although the Fifth Circuit stated that White House officials threatened the platforms with legal reforms,” the brief said, “the only statements it identified were general responses to press questions untethered from any specific content-moderation request.”

Lawyers for Missouri and Louisiana said the administration routinely crossed the line from general persuasion to particular demands.

“The government can speak freely on any topic it chooses,” the states’ brief said, “but it cannot pressure and coerce private companies to censor ordinary Americans.”

Kyrie Irving’s incredible running buzzer-beater lifts Mavericks over Nuggets

Press Room — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 09:36:32 +0000

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Dallas Mavericks point guard Kyrie Irving showed up when the team needed him the most on Sunday against the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets.

The Mavericks and Nuggets were tied as Dallas had the last possession in regulation. Irving received the inbounds pass with less than three seconds left in the game. He came off of a screen and curled around with the ball.

Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving (11) shoots the winning final-second basket against the Denver Nuggets in Dallas on March 17, 2024. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving reacts after hitting the game-winning shot against the Denver Nuggets in Dallas on March 17, 2024. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

He dribbled toward the foul line and threw up a running shot with his left hand, and the ball went through the basket at the buzzer. Mavericks players rushed over to Irving to celebrate the win.

Dallas won, 107-105.

VIEW THE MOMENT ON X

“In Kyrie we trust,” Mavericks rookie Dereck Lively II said. “Whenever we see him get the ball, sit back and watch it happen.”

LAKERS-WARRIORS GAME SEES ‘BIZARRE’ FINISH AFTER CLOCK MALFUNCTIONS AND REPLAY REVIEWS

Irving finished the game with 24 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.

“Sometimes I spend just an hour straight just working on straight left-hand stuff,” Irving said of his game-winner. “Just being a small guard, you’ve just got to have a multitude of finishes. And that’s something I’ve been working on since I was a kid.”

Denver gave itself a shot, rallying back from a 13-point deficit. Jamal Murray hit a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 26 seconds left. Murray finished with 23 points.

Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving (11) reacts with teammates P.J. Washington (25) and Tim Hardaway Jr. after Irving scored the game-winning shot against the Denver Nuggets in Dallas on March 17, 2024. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Dallas improved to 39-29 with the win. Denver fell to 47-21.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Mark Robinson, the Republican With a Right-Wing Vision for North Carolina

Press Room — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 09:28:14 +0000

As Mark Robinson completed his rapid six-year rise from conservative internet sensation to the Republican nominee for North Carolina governor, he worked relentlessly to sell his political vision to evangelical Christians.

Traveling from church to church and thundering away on social media, he condemned “transgenderism” and “homosexuality” as “filth.” He said Christians should be led by men, not women. And on at least one occasion, he explicitly called to upend American tradition on God’s role in government.

“People talk about the separation of church and state,” Mr. Robinson, North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, said in a speech in October. “I’m trying to find that phrase somewhere in our Constitution. Trying to find it somewhere in our Declaration of Independence. Trying to find it in the writings of any patriot, anywhere, and I cannot. And I cannot because it does not exist.”

He concluded, “There is no separation of church and state.”

Mr. Robinson’s long history of inflammatory statements has generated a torrent of headlines since he became the Republican standard-bearer in this year’s most closely watched race for governor. But underlying his combative proclamations on race, abortion, education and religion is an exceptionally right-wing worldview — with deep roots in modern evangelical Christianity — that would make him one of the most conservative governors in America if elected.

Mr. Robinson has telegraphed, often in bombastic terms, how far to the right he would try to push North Carolina, supporting a ban on all abortions once a heartbeat is detected, calling for arresting transgender women if they do not use the bathroom of their sex assigned at birth, and urging the introduction of prayer in schools.

As he runs to replace the term-limited Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, and give Republicans full control of state government, Mr. Robinson has shown no sign that he plans to moderate his message for the November general election. He may see a plausible path to victory through his appeals to the Christian right, given North Carolina’s vast evangelical community: Roughly 35 percent of the state’s adults identify as evangelical Protestants, according to the Pew Research Center.

Still, Democrats are painting Mr. Robinson as radical — “bleak and divisive, consumed by spite and hate,” as his November opponent, Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general, said in his victory speech this month. And even some Republicans worry he will struggle to win.

“Governors need to be able to project stability on fixing people’s problems,” said Paul Shumaker, a veteran Republican strategist in North Carolina. “And the question is going to be how, given Mark Robinson’s comments, how can he project stability in being able to address the problems that people expect their governor to address?”

His approach resembles that of former President Donald J. Trump, whose messaging also seems likelier to increase base turnout than to win over moderate or independent voters — and who has similarly focused on evangelicals. The former president told pastors at a Christian media gathering last month that he would unleash their political influence, promising, “You’re going to be using that power at a level that you’ve never used it before.”

Much like Mr. Trump, Mr. Robinson has made incendiary remarks a political calling card.

He has made comments widely seen as antisemitic. He once quoted Adolf Hitler on Facebook. He described the Parkland school shooting survivors who pushed for gun control as “spoiled, angry, know it all children.”

And Mr. Robinson, his state’s first Black elected lieutenant governor, has disparaged the African American community as one that “celebrates the very lawlessness and violence that is killing its future right in front of them.” He also called Black Americans “hypocrites who remain silent while they murder each other in abortion clinics and gang shootouts but then raise hell when a white cop shoots a Black criminal.”

A spokesman for Mr. Robinson, Mike Lonergan, said in a statement that the candidate was “a man who is very bold and outspoken about his Christian faith” and added that as lieutenant governor, Mr. Robinson believed “we don’t live in a theocracy, we live in a constitutional republic.”

“If and when he should become governor, he will take the oath and duties of his office with the utmost respect, working to make North Carolina better for people of all backgrounds and walks of life; by growing our economy, reforming our schools and creating a culture of life that does more to support mothers and families,” Mr. Lonergan said.

Mr. Robinson, 55, a former furniture factory worker who is married with two children, burst onto the political scene with a fiery speech defending gun rights at a Greensboro City Council meeting in 2018 that garnered millions of online views. He quickly parlayed that fame into speaking gigs at gun rallies, then filed to run for lieutenant governor, winning the position in 2020.

Mr. Robinson has the advantage of running in a rightward-leaning state that has voted Republican in every presidential election since 2008. Yet Democrats including President Biden see North Carolina as newly competitive thanks to its rapid demographic changes, with more people of color moving there.

The state has also proved reluctant to choose a Republican as its leader, electing just one to the governor’s office since 1993.

That lone G.O.P. governor, Pat McCrory, said in an interview that Mr. Robinson was part of a growing trend of candidates who “tell people what they want to hear, not necessarily what they need to hear.” He added that bluster and controversy were not necessarily appealing in a governor’s race.

When voters look at Mr. Robinson, Mr. McCrory asked, “will they see a chief executive?”

Some Republican leaders in the state say they have asked Mr. Robinson and his team to address his more troubling past remarks. They worry he will alienate moderate voters and miss out on vital funding, with Mr. Stein and allied groups widely expected to out-raise Mr. Robinson.

“We’re going to have a vigorous conversation about Mark — about where he’s going, about what he can do or should do to address the issues in front of him, because he’s got to tackle them head-on,” said Wayne Schaeffer, the chairman of the Bladen County Republican Party.

Mr. Robinson has often appeared at evangelical churches, where he espouses some of his most conservative views.

“That baby in your womb ain’t no clump of cells, and if you kill that child, you’re guilty of murder,” he said in August 2021 at the Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh.

The same summer, he told congregants at Asbury Baptist Church in Seagrove, N.C., that “there’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality or any of that filth. And yes, I called it filth.”

As lieutenant governor, Mr. Robinson also holds a seat on the State Board of Education. Soon after taking office in 2021, he convened a task force to “prove” that racial and sexual “indoctrination” prevailed in North Carolina’s schools, soliciting complaints from parents through an online portal.

They poured in, and the task force’s report was filled with anonymous anecdotes about racial and L.G.B.T.Q. issues arising in schools, as well as a few accusations of negative teachings about Christians.

Riding this conservative backlash, the state’s legislature passed a bill in 2022 to restrict how racism and sexism were taught. Mr. Cooper vetoed the measure.

Mr. Robinson has also blamed the lack of formalized religion in public schools as a reason for societal problems like school shootings.

“Do you not think that maybe if in the homeroom, before school started every day, if you were singing ‘Amazing Grace,’ giving God some praises and introducing his word back in that school, his wisdom back into those schools, maybe them schools wouldn’t be getting shot up to begin with?” Mr. Robinson said at an evangelical event in November 2021.

He has met regularly with religious groups while in office. In January 2023, he met with the N.C. Values Coalition, a conservative organization, to discuss banning abortion once a heartbeat is detected — which is usually around six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant.

Intrigued, Mr. Robinson asked which legislators needed encouragement to support such a measure, according to records obtained by American Oversight, a watchdog group.

The N.C. Values Coalition followed up with sample legislation and nine state senators and 26 state representatives to target. Mr. Robinson’s chief of staff distributed the list to other members of his office to look into, the records show.

Though a so-called heartbeat bill did not ultimately make it through the legislature, Republicans used their supermajority to pass a 12-week abortion ban in May.

On one of the greatest priorities for Mr. Trump and his loyal followers — denying the legitimacy of the 2020 election — Mr. Robinson has kept a bit more distance.

He has backed legislation that would tighten voting laws and give Republicans more control over local election boards. And he testified before the U.S. House of Representatives against a Democratic-backed elections proposal.

But election activists in North Carolina say he has sent them mixed signals, expressing openness to meeting with them yet refusing invitations to join their internal calls and meetings. He also ignored their calls for a “forensic audit” of the 2020 results, they said.

“He gives great speeches, but not about our issues,” said Jay DeLancy, who started a group that has pushed unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud.

Still, he said, he planned to support Mr. Robinson in the fall.

Eduardo Medina contributed reporting.

Hamstring surgery to sideline Dockers’ Cox for 12 weeks

Press Room — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 08:58:46 +0000

Fremantle are bracing to be without Brennan Cox for at least the next three months with a hamstring injury, amid the brutal toll of their round-one win over the Brisbane Lions.

Cox, Oscar McDonald (knee) and Karl Worner (concussion) all failed to finish the Dockers’ surprise 23-point victory at Optus Stadium on Sunday.

Versatile tall Cox suffered a serious right hamstring injury as he led for a pass during the final quarter and tumbled to the turf.

He saw a surgeon on Monday and faces a long road back to action.

“It looks like he’ll need surgery on that hamstring to be able to repair it,” Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir told Fox Footy on Monday night.

“I’m not a doctor but it’s somewhere between 12 to 15 weeks, I would imagine.”

New recruit McDonald went down clutching at his left knee in the dying stages of the third quarter after suffering an ugly hyperextension while landing.

“He’s got a little bit going on in that knee,” Longmuir said.

“I’m not going to say what it could be, because it could be a number of things at the moment. I’ve got my fingers and toes crossed for him.

“It was his first game at the club and he was playing a really important role for us and has had a super pre-season. Hopefully we get a better result there.”

Worner was taken off the ground on a stretcher during the third quarter after copping a sickening incidental hit to the head while trying to mark a ball.

“He’ll enter the concussion protocols and we’ll take it day by day with him and see how long it takes,” Longmuir said.

“We all know that concussion is a tricky one so we’ll take it easy on him for the first few days and see how he responds.”

Brisbane also suffered blows in the same game but are yet to confirm the extent of Darcy Gardiner’s suspected posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) injury and Conor McKenna’s hamstring issue.

Meanwhile, Essendon coach Brad Scott confirmed he will have to make three forced changes to his team for Saturday night’s clash with unbeaten Sydney, revealing Matt Guelfi will miss with a calf injury.

“Doctors tell me it’s minor but it’s major enough to miss,” Scott told Fox Footy on Monday night.

Guelfi joins key defender Zach Reid (hamstring strain) on the sidelines after last Saturday’s 24-point win over Hawthorn, while the Bombers have accepted Mason Redman’s one-match ban for striking Hawk Jai Newcombe.

Highly-rated Reid was the 10th overall pick at the 2020 draft but has managed just nine senior games while battling a series of injuries.

“We’ve been ultra conservative with him (throughout his career) and he’s got a minor hamstring,” Scott said.

“It’s not serious but for Reidy at the moment our view is there’s no such thing as a minor hamstring for him.

“We’ve got to be really, really patient with him and it’s really frustrating.”

TikTok debate reveals the risks for investing in China during U.S. election year

Press Room — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 08:52:39 +0000

Byron Janis, Pianist of Romantic Passion, Dies at 95

Press Room — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 08:47:02 +0000

Mr. Janis withdrew from the concert stage — temporarily, as it turned out — and devoted himself to songwriting, a pastime of his youth that he had given up when his touring schedule became too demanding.

With the encouragement of the folk singer Judy Collins, he sent a tape of his songs to Warner Chappell, the music publisher, which engaged him to compose 22 songs for a theatrical setting of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” with lyrics by Hal Hackady and a book by Anthony Scully. The show had its premiere at the Westbeth Theater, in Manhattan, in 1993.

Also among Mr. Janis’s works was an incidental score for “Cooper and Hemingway: The True Gen,” a 2013 documentary about the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and Mr. Janis’s father-in-law, the actor Gary Cooper. Mr. Janis and Maria Cooper married in 1966. An earlier marriage, to June Dickson Wright, ended in divorce. Mr. Janis had one son, from his first marriage, Stefan, who died in 2017.

In the mid-1990s, Mr. Janis returned to performing, gingerly at first, giving short performances at benefit concerts, at which he shared the bill with other performers, and working his way up to a program of works by Mozart, Schumann, Chopin and Prokofiev for an Alice Tully Hall recital in 1998 that commemorated the 50th anniversary of his Carnegie Hall recital debut.

Born Byron Yanks in McKeesport, Pa., on March 24, 1928, he grew up in Pittsburgh, where his father, Samuel, owned a sporting goods store. The elder Mr. Yanks had changed the family name from Yankilevitch before his son was born, and he would change it twice more — to Jannes and, finally, Janis — by 1943.

Mr. Janis’s mother, Hattie, was a homemaker. She first noticed her son’s musical talent when he was given a xylophone, around age 5, and quickly began picking out melodies. When he began correcting mistakes his older sister Thelma made while practicing for her piano lessons, Mr. Janis’s parents allowed him to have lessons of his own.

Marriage rates in China rise for first time in nine years

Press Room — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 08:44:24 +0000

HONG KONG: The number of new marriages in China jumped 12.4 per cent in 2023 from a year earlier, reversing a downtrend that has lasted for almost a decade as more youths tied the knot after delaying their nuptials due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of newlyweds rose to 7.68 million last year, according to data released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs last week. This was up 845,000 couples from 2022 but still far below the peak of 13.47 million couples hit in 2013.

The data comes after China’s Premier Li Qiang pledged in March that the government would work towards “a birth-friendly society and promote long-term, balanced population development”, as well as reducing the cost of childbirth, parenting and education.

Policymakers are grappling with how to reverse a declining population, where the birthrate is falling and society is ageing rapidly. Roughly 300 million Chinese are expected to enter retirement in the coming decade – the equivalent of almost the entire United States population.

China’s population fell for a second consecutive year in 2023, as the record low birth rate and deaths due to COVID-19 accelerated a downturn that officials fear will have profound long-term effects on the economy’s growth potential.

Malawian Woman Relives Horrors of Human Trafficking and Abuse in Oman

Press Room — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 08:36:32 +0000

In a heart-wrenching interview with the BBC, Georgina, a 32-year-old woman from Lilongwe, Malawi, breaks down as she recounts the harrowing abuse she endured while believing she was heading to a better life in the Middle East. Instead of the promised driver’s position in Dubai, she was tricked into becoming a maid in Oman, facing not just grueling work hours but also horrific sexual abuse.

Georgina’s journey into despair began when an agent approached her with the promise of higher earnings abroad, a tempting offer given her modest success with a small business back home. However, the reality of her situation dawned on her only after her plane landed in Muscat, Oman. She found herself trapped by a family that demanded she work without rest, granting her barely two hours of sleep and subjecting her to unspeakable sexual violence.

The abuse Georgina faced is part of a larger, disturbing trend in the Gulf Arab states, where it is estimated two million female domestic workers may be at risk. A report by the migrant charity Do Bold, highlighted in the 2023 US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report, reveals that nearly all the 400 women surveyed in Oman were victims of human trafficking. Shockingly, nearly a third reported sexual abuse, while half faced physical abuse and discrimination.

In a desperate plea for help, Georgina turned to Facebook, where her message caught the attention of Pililani Mombe Nyoni, a Malawian social media activist living in New Hampshire, USA. Nyoni took immediate action to ensure Georgina’s safety and started a wider investigation into the issue, which revealed that Georgina was far from alone.

Nyoni’s efforts led to the creation of a WhatsApp group that quickly filled with over fifty Malawian women in Oman, sharing their own tales of abuse and entrapment. Many of these women had their passports confiscated upon arrival, effectively trapping them with their employers.

Pililani Mombe Nyoni, moved by the plight of these women, worked tirelessly to bring their stories to light and seek help. She collaborated with Do Bold and its founder Ekaterina Porras Sivolobova to negotiate for the women’s release, confronting the challenges posed by the “kafala” labor system in the Middle East, which binds workers to their employers, severely limiting their freedom to leave or change jobs.

The Oman National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking insists that the relationship between employer and domestic worker is contractual and that disputes can be resolved through legal channels. They also state that employers are prohibited from imposing forced labor or retaining a worker’s personal documents without consent.

This story sheds light on the dark underbelly of human trafficking and abuse in the Gulf, highlighting the courage of survivors like Georgina and the activists fighting to end their suffering.