Sport Relief Is Back With The Challenge Of All Challenges
Sport Relief is back and for the first time ever is asking the entire nation to take on a huge collective challenge – beating a billion steps a day, every day, from 17th-23rd March.A host of famous faces including Zoe Ball, Greg James and Alex Jones will lead the charge and take on their own epic challenges to raise money and inspire the public to make their steps count as part of Team Sport Relief.Running, dancing, dog walking or Zumba-ing all count towards the step total as the nation comes together to raise money and help vulnerable people, across the UK and the world, to live happier, healthier and safer lives.To help the nation keep track of their hard earned steps and ensure they count towards the national total, the brand new Sport Relief App will be available to download for free. Packed with innovative challenges, exclusive celebrity content and a national step tracker to keep count towards the billion, it will also include countless ways to get active and raise money for Sport Relief.Liz Warner, CEO of Comic Relief, said:“Sport Relief gets us all donning our trainers and taking on all types of sporty challenges or running a mile at school to help raise funds.“In 2018 we have more British celebrities than ever pushing themselves to the limit to help us raise money for Sport Relief, which gives fifty percent of funds to the UK and the other fifty percent to the most desperate communities in the world.“This is the first time we have asked the nation to take up a collective challenge and we can’t wait to see how many steps we can all do – let’s hit a billion steps and get more donations and sponsors coming in to help others.”Whether taking part for fun or fitness, the public can show their support for Sport Relief by getting kitted out in the limited edition merchandise, available from 15th February, from official partner Sainsbury’s and at sportrelief.com.Coming up this Sport Relief:Kicking things off with a bang, BBC Radio 1’s Greg James will take on another incredible challenge. Can Greg beat his last Sport Relief achievement of five triathlons in five days? Watch this space for more details of an unprecedented challenge that will push the DJ to his limits.He said: “My last challenge was unbelievably difficult but I think we’re about to top it. At the end of the fifth triathlon I said “never again” but after seeing the huge amount of good it did in raising over a million quid for truly deserving projects and people, I have been inspired to push myself harder. This challenge is even more ridiculous.”Next up, broadcast queen Zoe Ball will be taking on a very special BT sponsored Sport Relief challenge – a cycling feat with a difference, while raising awareness of mental health issues.Zoe said: “I feel honoured to be taking on such an epic challenge for Sport Relief and it means so much to me to raise awareness of mental health issues – a topic close to my heart. This will be an awesome adventure, with miles to cover, hills to climb and a lot of chafing!”Zoe will then hand the baton to The One Show’s Alex Jones who has teamed up with four inspiring mums for ‘The Mother of all Challenges’, with a focus on maternal health. Taking place across six days, it promises to push them to their limits with the support of Sport Relief legend Professor Greg Whyte.Alex said: “Over the years I’ve done a number of things for Sport Relief, some more dangerous than others, but I think this one’s got a really different feel to it. It’s a gang of us, a group of mothers and we’re doing it as a team. I’m really looking forward to meeting the mothers, and being part of another Sport Relief – it’s going to be a good one, it always is!”On Friday 23rd March, TV fans can also look forward to the night of TV action, live from Salford on BBC One. The night will include incredible boxing bouts, as celebrities take to the ring and go toe-to-toe after months of hard-hitting training. Spencer Matthews, Wayne Bridge, Vanessa White and Hannah Spearritt are getting ready to rumble, with plenty more names and exciting telly treats to be announced.Everyone has to start somewhere right? Airing in March, BBC Two’s ‘Famously Unfit… for Sport Relief’ will see Les Dennis, Susannah Constantine, Tameka Empson and Miles Jupp put through their paces in a series of gruelling tasks to regain their fitness and kick-start a new healthy lifestyle, before taking on a muddy and exhausting obstacle course in freezing temperatures.For more information on how to get involved with this year’s Sport Relief campaign, download the Sport Relief App or go to sportrelief.com.
BOISE, Idaho — Some CenturyLink customers across the country were without the internet as outages stretched from New York to California.The company said on Twitter Thursday that its network was “experiencing a disruption” and that it was working to quickly restore services. It provided no other details, including how many customers were affected. CenturyLink didn’t respond to a request for comment.Jessica Rosenworcel, a member of the Federal Communications Commission, said via Twitter that this was a “nationwide outage” and her agency needed to investigate.It appeared that most of the trouble was in the West.The Idaho Statesman reports that the internet problems led to the temporary shutdown of phone services at the Idaho Department of Correction and the state’s Department of Education.There were reports of ATM machines not working in Idaho and Montana.The Associated Press
MATHURA: Actor and BJP lawmaker Hema Malini on Sunday campaigned in her parliamentary constituency, Mathura, in Uttar Pradesh with her husband and actor, Dharmendra, by her side. The popular Bollywood couple addressed a crowd for the Jat community where a massive crowd turned up. Addressing the rally, Dharmendra recalled how his humble beginnings helped him become a successful actor. “I am the son of a farmer and I have worked very hard in the fields when I was young,” he said. Dharmendra had a brief political stint about ten years ago when he contested the 2004 national elections from Rajasthan’s Bikaner on BJP ticket and won. Raising the poll pitch in the constituency, where the BJP has won four out of six Lok Sabha elections since 1991, Dharmendra told the crowd: “Gao walon, (Hema ji ke liye) vote karna. Nahi to kisi aas paas ki tanki pe chad jaunga aur wahan bahut mausi ko pukarunga. Bahut mausiyan aa jayengi. (Dear villagers, please vote for Hema Malini ji. Else, I will climb on one of the tanks and give a shout out to Mausi ji. I am sure a lot of them will come).” He reminded the crowd of the iconic scene from the movie, “Sholay”, where Hema Malini starred together with her husband and played the role of “Basanti”, a village girl. Hema Malini said she was excited to have her husband by her side. “With just two days remaining for the poll campaign to end in Mathura, people are excited to see me and him together. People have seen both of us together in so many movies. We are seeking votes for Mathura’s development,” she told reporters. Before the rally, she tweeted a picture of two of them together and said it was a “special day”. “Today is also a special day for me! Dharam ji is here in Mathura to campaign for a whole day on my behalf. The public is waiting eagerly to get a glimpse of him & listen to what he has to say! A photo taken in my house in Mathura just now before we leave for campaigning…(sic),” she wrote.
Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets feels that they only have themselves to blame after their unbeaten league run came to an end in their shocking 5-4 defeat to LevanteThe Catalan giants were 5-1 down against the 15th-place side at the Estadi Ciutat de València on Sunday night, before Phillipe Coutinho and Luis Suarez put the deficit down to 5-4 with 19 minutes remaining.However, Barcelona was unable to find an equaliser in the final moments and fell to their first La Liga defeat in 44 games.“Conceding five goals makes it very hard. We were caught on the counter-attack and there was a lack of concentration at times, too. Like I say, when you concede five, it’s hard to get anything positive from the game and that’s been the case,” said Busquets, according to Sport.The league champion’s late comeback proved to be futile in the end, despite their best efforts.“The fourth goal came with 20 minutes left,” he added.
Zidane reveals Sergio Ramos injury concern for Real Madrid Andrew Smyth – September 14, 2019 Zinedine Zidane has put Sergio Ramos’ availability for Real Madrid’s trip to Sevilla next weekend in doubt after withdrawing him against Levante.“We were pushing, working hard and used lots of energy, but that takes its toll in the end. We had chances to equalise but it wasn’t our night. When you give away five goals it’s hard to haul it back.”While disappointed to have not finished the season unbeaten, Busquets hopes that this defeat does not spoil what has been otherwise an outstanding season and the Spanish midfielder feels that his teammates should be proud to have managed a record 43 games unbeaten.“It’s clear we wanted to end the season unbeaten, but this doesn’t take any credit away from what we have done this season and everything we have achieved in La Liga,” said the 29-year-old.“The record [for games unbeaten, 43] we have over two years, but it’s shame [to lose out on an unbeaten season].“But we have won the league, it’s been an incredible season beyond this one game and I think we can be proud. Now we can celebrate with our fans in the final game.”
Posted: June 11, 2018 Categories: Local San Diego News RANCHO BERNARDO (KUSI) — A mural dedicated to two children killed in an apartment fire last October was unveiled Monday at Sunset Hills Elementary School.The mural is dedicated to the memories of 7-year-old Isabella Lopez and 10-year-old Cristos Lopez, who died in a fire that burned through their Bernardo Terrace condo.The children’s father, Henry Lopez, was charged with child endangerment causing death, reckless fire starting causing great bodily injury and involuntary manslaughter.Witnesses spotted flames coming from the second-story of a condominium on Bernardo Terrace about 3:20 a.m. on the morning of Oct. 28 and dialed 911.Firefighters arrived within minutes and found 7-year-old Isabella and 10-year-old Cristos upstairs with their father. Both children died later at a hospital.Lopez was legally separated from his wife but the estranged couple owned the home together.According to court documents, Lopez threatened to burn the residence down during a conversation about selling the condo and finalizing their divorce. Prosecutors claimed Lopez fell asleep with a cigarette in his hand, which started the fire, ultimately taking the lives of the two children.Their mother, Nikia Lopez, stood in front of the mural, teary and thankful for those who have helped her through the past several months.“Those children would not have been buried the way that they did had it not been for the community. I had nothing,” she said. “I have been in bed for three days. I have women coming to my house peeling me off the floor and getting me dressed. They feed me, I sleep on their couches. They have moved mountains for me. They say I don’t know why your babies are gone but they are special, they are not forgotten.”According to their GoFundMe page, Cristos was a 5th grader and Isabella was a 2nd grader at Sunset Hills Elementary school.“He loved playing basketball and was the MVP of his basketball team. He dreamed of playing professionally. But he also thought about being a banker because he was so good at math. And whenever you saw Cristos, he always had the biggest, warmest and most infectious smile for you. Even at just 10 years old, he always asked how you were doing with a quirky shyness that matched his caring personality. His family adored him. So did his friends and classmates.”“Isabella was the family firecracker. She had a spark that proved she could do anything. And she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. Even though she was the baby sister, she acted like Cristos’ big sister, as she liked to watch over him … She loved reading and wanted to become a doctor. She loved helping people. Most knew her as ‘Bella.’ And if she saw you from across the room, she would go out of her way just to say hello.” Mural remembers two children killed in Rancho Bernardo apartment fire , June 11, 2018 FacebookTwitter
Last year, the magazine began placing ads in the footers of editorial pages, alongside page numbers, launched a ‘VIP’ subscriber program and an online ad network. The Obama site is also a traffic grab, as the URL redirects to Paste’s Web site, and a banner ad appears at the top. Paste, the Decatur, Georgia-based music and entertainment magazine that’s developed a penchant for innovative experimentation, has launched a Web site—Obamicon.Me—that allows users to create their own digital versions of the iconic Barack Obama “Hope” poster.TheShepard Fairey-designed poster became a cult phenomenon, and was one ofthe iconic images of the 2008 presidential campaign—one that inspiredmagazine covers from 5280 to Time.Already, more than 10,000 “Obamaicons” have been created.Thata music and entertainment magazine would launch a Web site that hasalmost nothing to do with the music or entertainment industries is unusual,but sorta par for the course for Paste. In 2007, the magazine rolledout a pay-what-you-want subscription offer modeled after the rock bandRadiohead, which allowed its fans to pay what they wanted to downloadan album.
Sometimes little things can make a huge impact and it is what has made OnePlus stand out from the crowd all these years. The Chinese smartphone maker shot to fame in an unimaginably short period of time, but not without witnessing a fair share of troubles and mistakes that eventually led to admiring success. I’ve followed OnePlus from the early days of inception and watched it grow and seeing the brand today, with its sheer confidence, shows the world nothing is impossible.When I say “seeing the brand today”, I mainly refer to the kind of products OnePlus has grown to offer. Long gone are the days when I held the OnePlus One and admired that Sandstone finish that only OnePlus offered. Five years later, I’m holding the company’s best smartphone yet – OnePlus 7 Pro – in its satisfying glass beauty that has come a long way since the first handset, both in terms of class and price.You’ll rarely find a person who no longer recognises OnePlus, and the latest OnePlus 7-series has everyone excited. OnePlus officially unveiled the latest and most-anticipated flagship of the year, OnePlus 7 Pro, at an event in Bengaluru. I had the opportunity to test the most premium and priciest OnePlus smartphone every released over the past couple of days and here are my thoughts on the phone. OnePlus 7 Pro reviewIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus has always demonstrated the best of its capabilities in designing the best smartphone there is to hold and look. OnePlus 7 Pro is a classy masterpiece from every angle and the company has perfected the smartphone to an unimaginable extent. That beautiful, beautiful full-screen display is truly magical and it gets 2K resolution with 90Hz refresh rate, so all those PUBG sessions will never look the same after playing it on OnePlus 7 Pro.The curved display and the curved back gives a sleek form factor to the device, which is visually appealing and great to hold. But the extra screen real estate sure makes it difficult for single hand use, but I’m willing to compromise on that for the love of a great display. The brightness of the 2K screen can blind you in a dark room, but thankfully adaptive brightness works flawlessly – best I’ve seen in phones. The colours are vibrant and lively, the screen is bright enough even when you want to use it effortlessly on a bright day. Interestingly, the sides of the screen light up beautifully when a new notification arrives. Simply loved that minimalistic touch. OnePlus 7 Pro reviewIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro has been the flagship I’ve always wanted from OnePlus and the company has finally delivered. Better late than never. The overall design is perfect, but it is the little things that really impressed me. The earpiece on top of the display is as if it is not there – just so sleek. The alert slider and power button are on the right side and the volume buttons are on the left, all of them are within easy reach. The USB Type-C button is at the bottom, right next to the stereo. At the top, the pop-up selfie camera housing is invisible unless in use. 1/4 OnePlus 7 Pro reviewIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro reviewIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro reviewIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro reviewIBTimes India/Sami KhanPreviousNextSpeaking of the camera, OnePlus 7 Pro’s triple camera setup on the nebula blue back cannot miss anyone’s attention. There’s a 48MP Sony IMX586 primary sensor with f/1.6 aperture, OIS and EIS, paired with a 16MP f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle lens covering 117 degrees and an 8MP f/2.2 lens with 3X optical zoom. This is an ideal setup for brilliant photos and I couldn’t agree more. OnePlus has finally heard the cries of millions of people and has greatly improved the camera on the OnePlus 7 Pro. 1/2 OnePlus 7 Pro reviewIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro reviewIBTimes India/Sami KhanPreviousNextOnePlus 7 Pro photos have excellent colours, bright and vibrant, high dynamic range even in challenging light conditions and details that cannot be missed. Selfies are just as good. Although I wasn’t fully impressed with the Nightscape feature, that’s just me stretching hopes after using Google’s Night Sight and Huawei P30 Pro. OnePlus Nightscape works best when it is not pitch dark as it requires at least one light source nearby to give you a decent picture. To be fair, OnePlus 7 Pro’s nightscape feature doesn’t turn night into day as in the case of Huawei and Google phones but brightens the image to retain more details without having people guess whether it is night or day.The portrait shots are not perfect, but they do a good job at blurring out the background. The wide-angle lens is doing a fairly good job at covering a wider landscape and retaining maximum details. But I was thoroughly impressed with the 3x optical zoom, which retains excellent details from a distance.Here are a few photo samples I shot during my review:Wide-angle photos 1/7 OnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: Wide angleIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: Wide angleIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: Wide angleIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: Wide angleIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: Wide angleIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: Wide angleIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: Wide angleIBTimes India/Sami KhanPreviousNextPortraits 1/4 OnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: PortraitIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: PortraitIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: PortraitIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: PortraitIBTimes India/Sami KhanPreviousNext3x optical zoom 1/6 OnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: 1x Normal modeIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: 3x zoomIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: 1x normal modeIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: 3x zoomIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: 1x normal modeIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: 3x zoomIBTimes India/Sami KhanPreviousNextNightscape 1/4 OnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: NightscapeIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: NightscapeIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: NightscapeIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: NightscapeIBTimes India/Sami KhanPreviousNextNormal 1/7 OnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: NormalIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: NormalIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: NormalIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: NormalIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: NormalIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: NormalIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: NormalIBTimes India/Sami KhanPreviousNextSelfies 1/2 OnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: Selfies with and without portraitIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro camera sample: Selfies with and without portraitIBTimes India/Sami KhanPreviousNextThe list of things that amazed me during the review doesn’t seem to end here. OnePlus phones have always set the benchmark for performance and what do you think OnePlus 7 Pro is capable of delivering.OnePlus 7 Pro, with its Snapdragon 855, 12GB RAM and OxygenOS 9, is an absolute beast when it comes to handling multiple apps and tasks, running high-graphics apps without any lags and effortlessly taking care of day-to-day tasks – all while managing power the best way it can. I’ve played PUBG Mobile on various phones, but nothing is quite like on OnePlus 7 Pro. The dual stereos are a boon for gamers and multimedia buffs. One of my biggest complaints with the 6T was the single down-facing speaker and it’s no longer a problem with OnePlus 7 Pro. OnePlus 7 Pro reviewIBTimes India/Sami KhanThere were hardly any instances when the OnePlus 7 Pro gave up on me. In fact, the overall user experience is the best you’ll find on any phone and a huge credit goes to the OxygenOS 9. All the new features like screen recording with sound, new zen mode so you balance your digital and real lives, butter-like gestures, SMS aggregation, caller identification and all the existing clean and neat UI features contributed equally towards optimum user experience. And did I mention how great that 6.67-inch Fluid AMOLED 2K+ display is, which compliments the OxygenOS quite impressively.Another thing I noticed to have improved in the OnePlus 7 Pro is the optical fingerprint scanner, which works efficiently and in a jiffy. The whole “Fast and Smooth” mantra is applied to the fingerprint unlocking and face unlocking features in the OnePlus 7 Pro. Despite having a pop-up camera, I rarely noticed the mechanism in work. Overall, OnePlus 7 Pro is a work of art. OnePlus 7 Pro reviewIBTimes India/Sami KhanOnePlus 7 Pro’s 4,000mAh battery is huge in size but the phone doesn’t give it away, which is one of the things I liked. Complete with Warp Charge 30 and full day battery life, OnePlus 7 Pro is one of the few phones you can count on. In my tests, I was able to get 22+ hours of extensive usage, which included playing games, streaming videos, browsing social media, communicating on calls and IM apps. OnePlus 7 Pro consistently delivered north of 4 and half hours to 5 hours of on-screen time, which is more than I could ask for. OnePlus 7 Pro reviewIBTimes India/Sami KhanTo test fast charging, I drained the battery completely and charged to 100 percent in 80 minutes. Normally, I would charge for 30 minutes and easily get past a full day of work without having to plug the phone back in until midnight. The OnePlus 7 Pro review box also came with a Warp Car charger, which is brilliant. The fast charging in the car charger matches that of the wall charger, which is something I haven’t experienced with any car chargers. It was a life-saving feature as it allowed me to charge the phone to full during my commute to work.All said, the million dollar question is whether OnePlus 7 Pro is worth its price. Seeing how OnePlus has grown as a brand and how the OnePlus 7 Pro delivers on all fronts, I would easily recommend this flagship as a killer value for money for anyone looking for a premium smartphone in the sub-Rs 60K price range. If you’re fine with spending a bit more the next logical and reasonable device is Huawei P30 Pro, but that would require you to increase your budget to over Rs 70,000. OnePlus 7 Pro, on the other hand, starts at Rs 48,999 for the base model, but the unit I reviewed is the one with 12GB RAM and costs Rs 57,999. If you have the budget for it, you cannot go wrong with any of the OnePlus 7 Pro models. Close OnePlus 6T Thunder Purple Review: Fashionable and classy
IBTimes VideoRelated VideosMore videos Play VideoPauseMute0:03/0:59Loaded: 0%0:03Progress: 0%Stream TypeLIVE-0:56?Playback Rate1xChaptersChaptersDescriptionsdescriptions off, selectedSubtitlessubtitles settings, opens subtitles settings dialogsubtitles off, selectedAudio Trackdefault, selectedFullscreenThis is a modal window.Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.TextColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentBackgroundColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparentWindowColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaqueFont Size50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%Text Edge StyleNoneRaisedDepressedUniformDropshadowFont FamilyProportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall CapsReset restore all settings to the default valuesDoneClose Modal DialogEnd of dialog window. COPY LINKAD Loading …
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to the media during her post cabinet press conference at Parliament in Wellington on 25 March. Photo: AFPNew Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday ordered an independent judicial inquiry into whether police and intelligence services could have prevented the Christchurch mosque attacks on 15 March.Ardern said a royal commission — the most powerful judicial probe available under New Zealand law — was needed to find out how a single gunman was able to kill 50 people in an attack that shocked the world.”It is important that no stone is left unturned to get to how this act of terrorism occurred and how we could have stopped it,” she told reporters.New Zealand’s spy agencies have faced criticism in the wake of the attack for concentrating on the threat from Islamic extremism.Instead, the victims were all Muslims and the massacre was allegedly carried out by a white supremacist fixated on the belief that there was an Islamist plot to “invade” Western countries.”One question we need to answer is whether or not we could or should have known more,” Ardern said.”New Zealand is not a surveillance state … but questions need to be answered.”Ardern ruled out New Zealand re-introducing the death penalty for accused gunman Brenton Tarrant, 28, who was arrested minutes after the attack on the mosques and has been charged with murder.She said details of the royal commission were being finalised, but it would be comprehensive and would report in a timely manner.It will cover the activities of intelligence services, police, customs, immigration and any other relevant government agencies in the lead-up to the attack.The gunman livestreamed the attack online, although New Zealand has outlawed the footage as “objectionable content”.Ardern reiterated her believe it should not be aired.”That video should not be shared. That is harmful content,” she said when questioned about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan showing excerpts of the footage at campaign rallies for local elections this month.Erdogan had angered both Wellington and Canberra with campaign rhetoric about anti-Muslim Australians and New Zealanders being sent back in “coffins” like their grandfathers at Gallipoli, a World War I battle.New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters travelled to Istanbul to meet Erdogan and address an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.Peters said OIC members were full of praise for the support New Zealand had offered its small, tight-knit Muslim community in the wake of the killings.”A number of them were weeping and sobbing at the demonstration (of support) by non-Muslim New Zealand towards the Muslim victims,” he told reporters.”It was dramatic and I was told by countless ministers that they’ve never seen anything of that type.”The body of an Indian student killed in the Christchurch mosque attacks, meanwhile, was returned Monday to her grieving family in Kochi, where relatives remembered a bright young woman dedicated to her studies.Ansi Alibava, 25, was the first of at least five Indians shot dead on March 15 to be repatriated.The family planned to hold a funeral ceremony for the masters student in their nearby hometown of Kodungallur.
Share Rafaelgilo | Commons Creative, https://commons.wikimedia.orgAn image of a Zika virus mosquito.With the warmer weather you’re probably noticing more mosquitoes out.It’s not just you, a new ranking puts Houston at number seven on a list of the worst mosquito cities in the U.S.Dallas ranked number two on that list, while Atlanta was number one. The list put out by pest control company Orkin looked at cities with the most mosquito services performed over the past year. 
Damian Dovarganes/APThe President’s Daily Briefing, or PDB, is the top-secret intelligence report the CIA presents to the president every weekday. The book shown here is for a briefing delivered to President George W. Bush in 2002.On Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush was visiting Sarasota, Fla. At 8 a.m. sharp, the CIA’s Michael Morell delivered the daily intelligence briefing — something he did six mornings a week — regardless of whether the president was at the White House or on the road.“Contrary to press reporting and myth there was absolutely nothing in my briefing that had to do with terrorism that day,” Morell recalled. “Most of it had to do with the Israeli-Palestinian issue.”As Morell concluded, Bush stepped into his waiting motorcade and headed to an elementary school. Moments later, news broke of the terror attacks in New York. Shortly after that, Bush and Morell were on Air Force One — and the president wanted answers.“The president said to me, ‘Michael, who did this?’ ” Morell said. He didn’t know, but had a strong suspicion.“I told him that when we got to the end of the trail, I was absolutely confident, absolutely certain, that it would take us to [Osama] bin Laden and al-Qaida,” said Morell, who retired in 2013 as the CIA’s deputy director and now hosts the podcast Intelligence Matters.That landmark day captured both the critical importance — and the frustrating limits — of the President’s Daily Briefing, or PDB.Doug Mills/APChief of Staff Andy Card whispers into the ear of President George W. Bush to give him word of the planes that slammed into the World Trade Center in New York, on Sept. 11, 2001. Bush had received his daily intelligence briefing shortly before, and had just begun a visit to the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla.Launched under President TrumanThe practice of providing the president with a daily intelligence briefing began in 1946 with President Harry Truman, who was trying to make sense of a still chaotic world in the aftermath of World War II.“He was troubled that he was receiving these random reports from different departments and no one was telling him, or suggesting to him, what was particularly more important than something else,” said David Robarge, the CIA’s chief historian.Truman created the Central Intelligence Group, the forerunner of the CIA. Within weeks, the briefings began, and they were brief indeed. Most were short notes from U.S. ambassadors with little or no context.Many reports were based on rumors or newspaper stories abroad, and were difficult to verify, Robarge said.APThis image provided by the Central Intelligence Agency shows the first Daily Summary delivered to President Harry Truman on Feb. 15, 1946“We dealt a lot with information peddlers and fabricators and paper mills, as we called them,” he said. “We were very desperate for information and everybody knew that and took advantage of it. We spent a lot of our time in those early years sorting out the wheat from the chaff.”Despite being a part of every president’s daily routine for more than 70 years, the briefings are rarely discussed publicly. Just last month, the CIA declassified the first 20 briefings delivered to Truman — and many still resonate today.“The very first general item for Harry Truman was about some false information that was being put out about Russia and the United States,” said David Priess, a former CIA officer.Priess was a member of the presidential briefing team in the early 2000s and wrote a history of the briefings called The President’s Book of Secrets.Those initial briefings dealt with a trade dispute with China, which was resisting U.S. imports, and rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, where war would break out a few years later.“Many of the issues that President Truman was dealing with in February 1946 are still on the agenda today,” said Priess.APPresident Lyndon Johnson reads the President’s Daily Brief as his wife Lady Bird Johnson holds their first grandchild in the White House.Providing analysisToday’s version took shape under President John F. Kennedy and was driven in part by the Bay of Pigs, the failed CIA operation to overthrow Cuba’s leader Fidel Castro in 1961.“We knew John F. Kennedy was disappointed after the Bay of Pigs debacle early in his presidency and that helped spur this new intelligence product,” Priess said.The documents began including more analysis on the pros and cons of potential U.S. actions abroad. While the CIA has always handled the report, other agencies now contribute, including the National Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.One misconception is that all presidents are briefed face-to-face. But, as Rodney Faraon, a former CIA briefer, said, “Every president receives their briefing differently.”Most go over the briefing book on their own. For President Lyndon Johnson, it was bedtime reading. Richard Nixon didn’t care for it and allowed only one White House adviser to see it — Henry Kissinger. Barack Obama received it on his iPad and had it circulated to more than 30 advisers.Putting it togetherWhile Washington is sleeping, a team at CIA headquarters makes final edits to the leather-bound briefing book, updating it frequently.Rodney Faraon’s job in the late 1990s and early 2000s was to study up on the document overnight and head to the home of his boss, CIA Director George Tenet, at 6 a.m.“I would be briefing him in a secure vehicle on his way from his house to either the White House or to CIA headquarters,” Faraon recalled.David Priess delivered his briefing to the director of the FBI, a man who was always pressing him for more details — Robert Mueller. Mueller now leads the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible coordination with the Trump campaign.And Michael Morell remembers his briefings with Bush as if “I was in graduate school preparing to go in to seven or eight exams every morning with somebody who is going to fire questions at you nonstop.”Trump’s approachPresident Trump initially questioned the need for a daily briefing.But Mike Pompeo, the CIA director before becoming secretary of state, said it’s become part of the president’s routine.“Nearly every day, I get up, get ready, read the material that’s been presented early in the morning and then trundle down [from CIA headquarters] to the White House,” Pompeo said back in January.His successor as CIA director, Gina Haspel, is now a regular at the briefings, as is Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence.The intelligence community has had both great successes — like locating Osama bin Laden in Pakistan — and failures — like claiming Iraq’s Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The former CIA briefers say their role is to provide the best possible intelligence, and leave the policy choices to the president.David Priess cites an old CIA expression: “You can lead policymakers to intelligence, but you can’t make them think.”Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. Share
We look at the true legacy of iconic former Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry with our panel, including veteran D.C. AFRO reporter James Wright. And Baltimore AFRO reporter Roberto Alejandro shares the details of his recent exclusive interview with Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Also, in our “Media Monday” segment, Lamonte Summers, professor of Media Law and Ethics at Morgan State University discusses the burgeoning media feeding frenzy connected to the growing list of sexual assault allegations leveled against Bill Cosby, as well as some of the irresponsible and inflammatory reporting on the death of Marion Barry. All that and more coming up this evening on First Edition with Sean Yoes.
Hassell completed his 10th season working with the Louisville baseball program in 2019, having been with the program from 2008-11 and returning before the 2014 season. His first experience at the international level began immediately following Louisville’s fifth appearance at the College World Series. “USA Baseball is something I’ve wanted to be a part of ever since I started my career as an athletic trainer,” Hassell said. “USA Baseball is such a first class organization from top to bottom and I’m so thankful they gave me this chance to work with such a great coaching staff, not to mention what is most likely the next generation of big leaguers.” Hassell worked alongside UofL head coach Dan McDonnell, who served as the manager of the team, during the four-week period that saw the USA CNT compete across North Carolina against Cuba before series in Taiwan and Japan. Fans can follow Louisville baseball on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at @LouisvilleBSB. Print Friendly Version “Working in college baseball for 14 years has given me so many memories and experiences that I’ll never forget, but having the opportunity to represent the United States and the University of Louisville in international competition is hard to top.” The USA Baseball Collegiate National Team was made up of an elite group of collegiate players from across the country, including a pair of student-athletes from UofL. Reid Detmers and Lucas Dunn competed for Team USA this summer, while Alex Binelas, Michael Kirian and Bobby Miller were all invited to training camp and Gabe Burchell served as the bullpen catcher. Team USA picked up victories in four of its five games in the 8th Annual USA vs. Cuba International Friendship Series before heading across the globe to Taiwan. There, the USA CNT won two out of three to capture the 19th USA vs. Chinese Taipei International Friendship Series before falling 3-2 in the 43rd USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Series to wrap up the summer. LOUISVILLE, Ky. – University of Louisville Associate Director of Sports Medicine Pat Hassell represented the Cardinals on the international stage this summer, working as the athletic trainer for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team. Story Links
Daniel Vettori became the first New Zealand bowler to take 300 one-day international wickets as the Black Caps made short work of Afghanistan to remain unbeaten after five World Cup matches on Sunday. Left-arm spinner Vettori scythed through the Afghanistan top order, using his guile on a pitch producing no turn, to finish with the remarkable figures of four for 18 in 10 overs as Afghanistan were dismissed for 186. Along the way he became the 12th player, and only the fifth spinner, to take 300 ODI wickets. Also Read – Khel Ratna for Deepa and Bajrang, Arjuna for JadejaOn a run-laden McLean Park pitch in Napier, New Zealand needed only 36.1 overs to overhaul Afghanistan’s total. New Zealand, who had already qualified for the quarter-finals, have yet to be taken the distance in the field and the 47.4 overs bowled to Afghanistan is the most they have sent down in any match in the tournament. But the result was never in doubt when Brendon McCullum, with his trademark aggressive approach, blazed away at the top of the New Zealand innings slamming 42 off 19 deliveries to get the chase off to a rollicking start. Also Read – Endeavour is to facilitate smooth transition: ShastriWhen he was bowled by Mohammad Nabi, trying to belt his opposing captain out of the ground, New Zealand were already a quarter of the way to their target after fewer than six overs. The pace slowed from nine to 5.19 runs an over after McCullum’s dismissal as New Zealand coasted to victory with their middle-to-lower order not getting the lengthy time at the crease they wanted before the knockout phase.Kane Williamson, in his understated manner, contributed 33, Martin Guptill reached 57, his highest score of the campaign, and Grant Elliott made 19. Guptill and Elliott were both needlessly run out when time and runs were not an issue, leaving Ross Taylor (24 not out) and Corey Anderson (seven not out) to see New Zealand home. It wasn’t easy for Afghanistan who were already jet-lagged having crossed the Tasman Sea twice in the week to meet their gruelling World Cup schedule ahead of this game.BRIEFSCORES NZL 188/4 (Guptill 57, McCullum 42) beat AFG 186 (Najibullah 56, Vettori 4-18, Boult 3-34) by six wickets.
After deep learning, reinforcement Learning (RL), the hottest branch of Artificial Intelligence that is finding speedy adoption in tech-driven companies. Simply put, reinforcement learning is all about algorithms tracking previous actions or behaviour and providing optimized decisions using trial-and-error principle. Read How Reinforcement Learning works to know more. It might sound theoretical but gigantic firms like Google and Uber have tested out this exceptional mechanism and have been highly successful in cutting edge applied robotics fields such as self driving vehicles. Other top giants including Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft have centralized their innovations around deep reinforcement learning across Automotive, Supply Chain, Networking, Finance and Robotics. With such humongous achievement, reinforcement learning libraries has caught the Artificial Intelligence developer communities’ eye and have gained prime interest for training agents and reinforcing the behavior of the trained agents. In fact, researchers believe in the tremendous potential of reinforcement learning to address unsolved real world challenges like material discovery, space exploration, drug discovery etc and build much smarter artificial intelligence solutions. In this article, we will have a look at the most promising open source tools and libraries to start building your reinforcement learning projects on. OpenAI Gym OpenAI Gym, the most popular environment for developing and comparing reinforcement learning models, is completely compatible with high computational libraries like TensorFlow. The Python based rich AI simulation environment offers support for training agents on classic games like Atari as well as for other branches of science like robotics and physics such as Gazebo simulator and MuJoCo simulator. The Gym environment also offers APIs which facilitate feeding observations along with rewards back to agents. OpenAI has also recently released a new platform, Gym Retro made up of 58 varied and specific scenarios from Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Sonic 3 games. Reinforcement learning enthusiasts and AI game developers can register for this competition. Read: How to build a cartpole game using OpenAI Gym TensorFlow This is an another well-known open-source library by Google followed by more than 95,000 developers everyday in areas of natural language processing, intelligent chatbots, robotics, and more. The TensorFlow community has developed an extended version called TensorLayer providing popular RL modules that can be easily customized and assembled for tackling real-world machine learning challenges. The TensorFlow community allows for the framework development in most popular languages such as Python, C, Java, JavaScript and Go. Google & its TensorFlow team are in the process of coming up with a Swift-compatible version to enable machine learning on Apple environment. Read How to implement Reinforcement Learning with TensorFlow Keras Keras presents simplicity in implementing neural networks with just a few lines of codes with faster execution. It provides senior developers and principal scientists with a high-level interface to high tensor computation framework, TensorFlow and centralizes on the model architecture. So, if you have any existing RL models written in TensorFlow, just pick the Keras framework and you can transfer the learning to the related machine learning problem. DeepMind Lab DeepMind Lab is a Google 3D platform with customization for agent-based AI research. It is utilized to understand how self-sufficient artificial agents learn complicated tasks in large, partially observed environments. With the victory of its AlphaGo program against go players, in early 2016, DeepMind captured the public’s attention. With its three hubs spread across London, Canada and France, the DeepMind team is focussing on core AI fundamentals which includes building a single AI system backed by state-of-the-art methods and distributional reinforcement learning. To know more about how DeepMind Lab works, read How Google’s DeepMind is creating images with artificial intelligence. Pytorch Pytorch, open sourced by Facebook, is another well-known deep learning library adopted by many reinforcement learning researchers. It was recent preferred almost unanimously by top 10 finishers in Kaggle competition. With dynamic neural networks and strong GPU acceleration, Rl practitioners use it extensively to conduct experiments on implementing policy-based agent and to create new adventures. One crazy research project is Playing GridWorld, where Pytorch unchained its capabilities with renowned RL algorithms like policy gradient and simplified Actor-Critic method. Summing It Up There you have it, the top tools and libraries for reinforcement learning. The list doesn’t end here, as there is a lot of work happening in developing platforms and libraries for scaling reinforcement learning. Frameworks like RL4J, RLlib are already in development and very soon would be full-fledged available for developers to simulate their models in their preferred coding language.
Travelweek Group Share << Previous PostNext Post >> Tags: America, Donald Trump U.S. confirms Canadian passport holders excused from ban, industry reacts With file from the Canadian Press Wednesday, February 1, 2017 WASHINGTON — The U.S. government has provided some clarity: Canadian passport-holders have the right to travel to the United States, despite days of confusing, contradictory messages about President Trump’s travel restrictions.Four days after the order was announced, the American administration held its first detailed news conference Tuesday shedding light on who can still travel to the U.S. and who can’t – at least not until the order is reviewed in a few months.The U.S. government confirmed publicly what it has privately told the Canadian government: that citizens of non-affected countries, including dual citizens, are exempt by the travel freeze on seven majority-Muslim countries.It was a relevant question for about 35,000 Canadians. That’s how many have dual citizenship with the seven affected countries, and some of those Canadians may have jobs, families, and homes in the U.S.“Travellers will be assessed at our border based on the passport they present – not any dual national status. So if you’re a citizen of the United Kingdom, you present your United Kingdom passport,” said Kevin McAleenan, acting commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. “The executive order does not apply to you.”More news: War of words between Transat, Group Mach ramps upHe made those remarks next to his boss, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. The newly named cabinet secretary said the order will be followed humanely.The order still applies to temporary visitors with visas. Visa holders will be denied the right to board flights to the U.S., and sent to State Department representatives for additional instruction.The order could be temporary, and will be reviewed in several months.Early accounts were laden with confusion. The State Department stated that it applied to dual citizens. Some officials suggested it might also ban permanent U.S. residents. Those mixed messages sowed concern around the globe.Airports were hit with protests, as hundreds of travellers were detained. McAleenan said about 721 travellers were denied the right to board planes among the 500,000 non-Americans travelling to the U.S.The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) President & CEO David Scowsill issued a scathing statement following the order. “The Executive Order issued by US President Trump on 27 January 2017 banning travel to the US from seven countries for 90 days goes directly against the fundamental right of Freedom to Travel. It has created immense confusion among travellers and travel companies worldwide,” Scowsill said. “WTTC believes that all people have the right to cross international borders safely and efficiently for business and tourism purposes. The blanket suspension of admittance of travellers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen to the US flies against this principle.”More news: Marriott Int’l announces 5 new all-inclusive resorts in D.R. & MexicoMeanwhile, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) also lashed out, saying that “entry requirements for the United States were changed significantly and immediately … The [executive order] was issued without prior coordination or warning, causing confusion among both airlines and travellers.”Tour operators have also issued statements, including Intrepid Travel, who said that it “stands against any policy that closes borders, separates families, discriminates against religion or demonizes the less fortunate.” The statement also said that the company “strongly urges the American government to reinstate the rights of migrants and foreign citizens to enter the United States.” Posted by
Fernando Quirós Jorge Molina, president of the Southern Caribbean Chamber of Tourism, celebrates the moratorium’s passage in the Legislative Assembly. Bulldozers will not be coming to the southern Caribbean coast – or any other coastal community in Costa Rica – for another two years.A 24-month moratorium passed in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday evening, preventing the destruction of thousands of homes and businesses located in protected areas along the country’s coastlines. The vote passed with 35 lawmakers voting in favor and four voting against Bill 18,440.Approximately 90 citizens from the Caribbean towns of Puerto Viejo and Manzanilla attended the vote. Outside the assembly, they celebrated the ruling. Some dressed in traditional Afro-Caribbean garb and others beat drums as they cavorted with lawmakers who helped push the bill through Congress, including Libertarian legislator Mireya Zamora and National Liberation Party member Carolina Delgado. “We know that this is not everything,” said Johnny León, whose family has lived in Puerto Viejo since 1904. “It’s the beginning. It’s part of the process that we have to go through. And we have to keep working. But also today we can celebrate a great victory on the part of the southern Caribbean, our pueblo.”An estimated 300,000 people are affected by the Maritime Zone Law, which was established in 1977. The largest area of concern is in the southern Caribbean. The law does not affect construction in the zone before 1977. However, many communities built in the area after the law came into effect. However, the government never seemed interested in enforcing the law until recently.The Comptroller General’s Office ordered municipalities to destroy structures found to be in violation of the Maritime Zone Law. In Cahuita and Puerto Viejo, 13 buildings were ordered demolished by Nov. 30. (The Comptroller General later denied that those demolitions were imminent.) Coastal residents created an uproar once neighborhoods, including schools and hotels within the zone, faced the possibility of being flattened.The law defines all land 50 meters from the high-tide line in coastal areas as public land and prohibits construction in that zone. The area from 50 meters to 200 meters is considered restricted, but municipalities are allowed to issue concessions to certain developments.León said it was a relief that coastal residents could work toward a compromise with the government over the next two years, while no longer worrying about the possibility of demolitions.Jorge Molina, president of the Southern Caribbean Tourism Chamber, thanked supporters outside the legislative building and said leaders from the Caribbean and other regions affected should organize and negotiate a long-term solution with lawmakers before the 2014 deadline.“This problem is 35 years old,” Molina said. “A bunch of communities in the coast are tired. We can’t wait one more year.” Facebook Comments No related posts.
Categories: Chatfield News Under new legislation introduced by state Rep. Lee Chatfield, the state will play a more significant role in the oversight of interstate petroleum pipelines running through Michigan, including increased coordination with the federal government to ensure better preparedness and emergency response in the case of a spill.“The ultimate goal of this legislation is to protect the public health, safety and welfare of Michigan citizens, our natural resources and our economy,” said Rep. Chatfield, R-Levering. “Currently, the federal government is in the driver’s seat on our pipeline safety issues while Michigan officials are along for the ride stuffed in the trunk. My bill will see to it that we can play a greater role by establishing better coordination with the federal government to ensure our state agencies are fully informed and are better prepared to respond to emergencies.”Oil pipelines have requirements to meet under the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) of 1990 which requires the owners/operators of oil pipelines to develop detailed site-specific Spill Response Plans to detail chain of authority for spills, specify personnel and equipment capable of responding to a “worst case” spill from a pipeline or other facility, and describe training, testing, and unannounced drills.Neither the OPA nor the state of Michigan requires petroleum pipeline operators in Michigan to submit their spill response plans to the state for review and approval. Nor are they required to report spills directly to the state.“This legislation would not duplicate the existing planning process, although it will help to ensure that state and local agencies are in the loop as plans are tested and implemented,” concluded Rep. Chatfield.HB 5198 has been referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources for further consideration.### Bill ensures state agencies are fully informed and better prepared to respond in an emergency
01Feb Rep. Chatfield introduces legislation to strengthen pipeline safety
Russian service provider Rostelecom has awarded contracts for the supply of equipment to build Metro Ethernet fibre-to-the-building and GPON fibre networks.The operator placed contracts worth RUB1.570 billion (€34.5 million), saving over 35% on its initial maximum budget.Rostelecom is placing orders worth RUB375.7 million for access switches, RUB183.1 million for aggregation equipment, RUB708.1 million for FTTB cabinets and RUB303.3 million for GPON equipment.
