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NoneKulgam, Dec 27: Following the first snowfall of the season, the Deputy Commissioner (DC) Kulgam, Athar Aamir Khan Friday conducted an extensive tour of Kulgam town to personally monitor the snow clearance operations. The DC also visited the Mechanical Field Sub-Division Kulgam to take stock of the availability of machinery and the functioning of the control room. The Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE), Mechanical Engineering Department briefed the DC about the preparedness of the department. He informed that a total of 25 machines, including 2 snow cutters, are available with the department for snow clearance. He also highlighted that snow clearance control rooms have been established at Chawalgam Kulgam and Bathipora, with contact numbers widely publicized among the public. The department is tasked with clearing a total road length of 585 kilometers, of which 430.57 kilometers are classified as Priority 1 and 154.66 kilometers as Priority 2. One machine has been pre-positioned for the Kund area. The DC instructed all concerned officers to ensure that men and machinery are fully prepared to clear snow from all roads promptly, ensuring minimal inconvenience to the public. Accompanying the DC were ADC, Viqar Ahmad Giri; ACR, Executive Engineer MED and other officers.US coach Emma Hayes admits to anthem uncertainty ahead of England stalemate
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Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan is planning to return for his 15th NFL season in 2025, per Mike Triplett of NewOrleans.Football . Jordan has one year remaining on his current deal with the Saints, but the team is already almost $64M over the NFL’s projected 2025 salary cap, per OverTheCap . A release with a post-June 1 designation would save the Saints $11M of salary cap space next year, though the team would have to absorb almost $24M in dead cap hits across 2025 and 2026. This isn’t the first time Jordan has faced a potential end to his time in New Orleans. He’s become accustomed to treating the team’s final home game each year as if it could be his last in the Superdome, according to Triplett. If the Saints do part ways with Jordan, he will face a complicated free agency market this offseason. To start, he’s 35 years old with just 5.0 sacks in the last two years after 11 straight seasons with at least 7.5. Jordan has yet to miss a game in his career, but his snap share has steadily dropped since he turned 30, reaching a career-low 47% this year. He would likely need to take a pay cut from his current $13.25M per-year average, though with over $125M in career earnings, Jordan is more likely to be chasing another Super Bowl ring than a final payday. He also wants to stay at defensive end instead of moving inside to defensive tackle, per Triplett. Jordan has spent the vast majority of his career as an edge defender in the Saints’ 4-3 scheme. At 6-foot-4 and 287 pounds, he has the size to play along the interior but believes he will be most effective on the outside. However, teams with a 3-4 defense — which tend to assign more coverage responsibilities to edge defenders — may only see Jordan as a designated pass-rusher. Still, most teams primarily use nickel personnel, so Jordan should be able to find a new defensive end gig if he leaves New Orleans. This article first appeared on Pro Football Rumors and was syndicated with permission.FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Preview, Doha, Qatar - November 18, 2022 The FIFA World Cup logo is pictured on the Corniche Promenade ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo A Fifa sub-committee report on Qatar's 2022 World Cup legacy said soccer's world governing body has a responsibility to compensate migrant workers but the organisation has not acted on a recommendation to do that by using its legacy fund. The report prepared by the Fifa Sub-Committee on Human Rights and Social Responsibility looked into a request made at the Fifa Congress by the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF), who asked what steps Fifa might take to compensate workers. Fifa launched a US$50 million (S$67 million) legacy fund this week for social programmes but was criticised by Amnesty International for not doing anything for families of migrant workers who died or were exploited when building Qatar's stadiums for the World Cup. The Middle Eastern country has denied that workers were exploited. "There are workers who have contributed to the resounding success of the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 who have not yet benefited from any, or any adequate, remediation," said the report, which was published 11 months after it was submitted. "Whilst the main responsibility to rectify such shortcomings lies with the direct employers of these workers as well as with the Government of Qatar... Fifa too has a responsibility to take additional measures to contribute to the provision of remedy to these workers." The report said many "human rights impacts" occurred in Qatar from 2010-2022 for workers, including deaths, injuries, wages not being paid for months and debt faced by workers and their families reimbursing fees they paid to obtain jobs. "The due diligence measures put in place by Fifa and its partners did not prevent these severe impacts from occurring," it added. Fair compensation "The report provides clear guidelines to Fifa on what constitutes effective and fair restitution to ensure migrant workers get the compensation they are entitled to," NFF president Lise Klaveness said. "Fifa must now implement the recommendations in the report and ensure that migrant workers who contributed to the World Cup are fairly compensated." Fifa said all reports and recommendations were considered during a comprehensive review. "While all recommendations could not be met, practical and impactful elements were retained. It should be noted that the study did not specifically constitute a legal assessment of the obligation to remedy," a Fifa spokesperson told Reuters. The spokesperson added that the creation of the legacy fund was "unanimously endorsed" by the Fifa Council while a Workers' Support and Insurance Fund was established in Qatar in 2018. At the World Cup in Doha, Fifa president Gianni Infantino said the Workers' Support and Insurance Fund had provided compensation of more than US$350 million to workers in cases mainly related to non-payment of wages. Amnesty and other rights groups had led calls for Fifa to compensate migrant workers for human rights abuses by setting aside US$440 million, matching the World Cup prize money. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you. Read 3 articles and stand to win rewards Spin the wheel now
MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP) — The Marrakech International Film Festival bestowed its top prize Friday on “Happy Holidays,” a Palestinian drama set in Israel whose screenplay won an award at the Venice Film Festival in September. The film, directed by Scandar Copti, follows Israeli and Palestinian characters facing familial and societal pressures in present-day Haifa and stars both professional and non-professional actors. It is the first Palestinian film to win Marrakech’s Etoile D’Or award. Screenwriter Mona Copti in an acceptance speech said the film team’s joy at winning was tempered by war in the Middle East and she denounced what she called the dehumanization of Palestinians Eight features, each a director’s first or second film, competed in the festival. The winning films tackled social issues through the lens of family, a theme that the festival’s artistic director Remi Bonhomme underlined at its opening. The festival awarded its jury prize to two additional films from Somalia and Argentina. The nine-member jury awarded Mo Harawe’s “The Village Next to Paradise” — a story about a family living under the threat of drone strikes dreaming of a better life — and Silvina Schnicer’s “The Cottage” about children who commit an unspeakable act at a rich family’s summer vacation home. “The Village Next to Paradise” participated last year in the Marrakech festival’s Atlas Workshops, an initiative to develop filmmakers from Morocco, the Middle East and Africa and promote their work. In his acceptance speech, Harawe lauded the film’s Somali cast and crew and highlighted the significance of the award for Somalia. Cecilia Rainero, the lead actor of “The Cottage,” thanked the jury and said it was meaningful amid Argentinian President Javier Milei’s moves to defund the country’s film industry.
By Tom Murphy and Devi Shastri | Associated Press For years, patients in the U.S. health care system have grown frustrated with a bureaucracy they don’t understand . Doctors are included in an insurer’s network one year but not the next. Getting someone on the phone to help can be next to impossible. Coverage of care and prescriptions is often unceremoniously denied. This week’s fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has unleashed a wave of public feeling — exasperation, anger, resentment, helplessness — from Americans sharing personal stories of interactions with insurance companies, often seen as faceless corporate giants. In particular, the words written on ammunition found at the shooting scene — “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” echoing a phrase used to describe how insurers dodge claim payouts — amplified voices that have long been critical of the industry. “All of a sudden, I am fired up again,” said Tim Anderson, describing how his wife, Mary, had to deal with UnitedHealthcare coverage denials before she died from Lou Gehrig’s disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, in 2022. Anderson said they couldn’t get coverage for machines to help his wife breathe or talk — toward the end, she communicated by blinking when he showed her pictures. The family had to rely on donations from a local ALS group, he said. “The business model for insurance is don’t pay,” said Anderson, 67, of Centerville, Ohio. “When Mary could still talk, she said to me to keep fighting this,” he added. “It needs to be exposed.” For Anderson and others, Thompson’s death and the message left at the scene have created an opportunity to vent their frustrations. Conversations at dinner tables, office water coolers, social gatherings and on social media have pivoted to the topic, as police efforts to find the gunman keep the case in the news. Hans Maristela said he understands why the chatter is bubbling up. The 54-year-old caregiver in California was moved to comment on Facebook about UnitedHealthcare’s reputation of denying coverage. As a Catholic, he said, he grieves Thompson’s death and feels for his family, especially with the holidays around the corner. But he sees frustration with insurers even among his clients, most of them wealthy older people who’ve not been shielded from high out-of-pocket costs. “And then you know the CEO of this company you pay a lot of money to gets $10 million dollars a year, you won’t have a lot of sympathy for the guy,” Maristela said, citing Thompson’s compensation package that included base pay and stock options. “Health care is a business, I understand, but the obsession with share price, with profit, has to be reevaluated.” University of Pennsylvania researcher Michael Anne Kyle said she’s not surprised by the growth of conversation around insurers. “People are often struggling with this by themselves, and when you see someone else talk about it, that may prompt you to join the conversation,” she said. Kyle studies how patients access care and said she’s seen frustration with the system build for years. Costs are rising, and insurers are using more controls such as prior authorizations and doctor networks to manage them. Patients are often stuck in the middle of disputes between doctors and insurers. “Patients are already spending a lot of money on health care, and then they’re still facing problems with the service,” she said. Insurers often note that most of the money they bring in goes back out the door to pay claims, and that they try to corral soaring costs and the overuse of some care. In Ohio, Anderson said his initial reaction to the CEO shooting was to question whether it was connected to a coverage denial, like the ones he’d experienced with his wife. “I definitely do not condone killing people,” he said. “But I read it and said, ‘I wonder if somebody had a spouse whose coverage was denied.’” It’s something Will Flanary, a Portland-based ophthalmologist and comedian with a large social media following, saw online a lot in the shooting’s immediate aftermath and found very telling. “It’s zero sympathy,” he said. “And the lesson to take away from that is not, ‘Let’s shame people for celebrating a murder.’ No, it’s: ‘Look at the amount of anger that people have toward this system that’s taken advantage of people and do something to try to fix that.’” Flanary’s content, published under the name Dr. Glaucomflecken, started out as niche eye doctor jokes and a way to cope with his own experiences with two cancer diagnoses and a sudden cardiac arrest. But it has evolved, featuring character skits that call attention to and satirize the decisions of large health insurers, including UnitedHealthcare. He said he’s never seen conversations around health insurance policy take off the way they did this week — and he hopes these new voices can help bring about change. “I’m always talking about how powerful social media can be with advocacy,” he said, “because it really is the only way to put a significant amount of pressure on these corporations who are doing bad things for patients.” The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.Trump names Andrew Ferguson as head of Federal Trade Commission to replace Lina Khan
(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump has promised to reduce government waste and employed wealthy businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the charge. So far, spending on federal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies are prime targets for Musk and Ramaswamy, and a recent report shows just how widespread federal DEI spending has become. The report from Do No Harm shows 500 ways the Biden-Harris administration “infused DEI into the federal government.” Those examples include federal agencies starting dozens of equity training programs, doling out federal contracts and jobs based on race and gender, and teaching Americans more about their country’s racism, both past and present. The DEI explosion took off after Biden issued executive orders on his first day in office as well as another in June of 2021. The first executive order “established that affirmatively advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity is the responsibility of the whole of our Government.” The second order established “that it is the policy of my Administration to cultivate a workforce that draws from the full diversity of the Nation.” Biden also issued other executive orders, including around gender and sexuality, to the same effect his first year in office. Those orders gave federal bureaucrats not only permission but actually direct orders to embrace DEI policies across the board. And Do No Harm’s report shows they did, full-throttle, citing 80 “Equity Action Plans” submitted by agencies that promised over 500 taxpayer-funded actions. Some of the actions are seemingly mild, such as the U.S. Social Security Administration tracking more racial data. Other examples of DEI policies, though, made the federal government the nation’s teacher. For example, a blog for the U.S. Treasury Department lectures Americans on racial inequality. More directly, the federal government began implementing training programs for many federal employees that fully embrace racial ideology labeled “woke” by its opponents. For instance, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission invested in training for employees to consider equity more in its regulatory decisions. “Training will address how equity and environmental justice involves removing barriers underserved communities may face in the context of the Commission’s practices, processes, and policies,” FERC said in its Equity Action Plan. “Training also will address how, consistent with FERC’s mission and statutory duties, the Commission considers the impact of its actions on such communities. More specific trainings geared toward the responsibilities of different program offices and issue areas also may be identified or developed and offered.” Other actions seem to favor some groups over others. Changing the “percentage” of benefits received necessarily requires giving contracts, grants, or other federal resources to certain groups, almost always at the expense of white Americans, even more often white men. For example, the American Battle Monuments Commissions in its Equity Action Plan called for “expanding the percentage of U.S.-based contracted goods and services awarded to minority-owned, women-owned, and service disabled veteran-owned enterprises.” In fact, the ABMC pledged to pay a worker for this sole purpose. In another instance, the Smithsonian Institute pledged to recruit more Black and indigenous interns. “One of the simplest ways to ensure equity and accessibility in internships is to provide a livable stipend and advertise it clearly in promotion materials,” the federal group said in its Equity Action Plan. “Many units include a statement directly in their internship description about their commitment to equity. They also are intentional about making the application process simple and transparent, offering access services for interviews and allowing for multiple formats in place of a required essay.” The Smithsonian Institution , the federal steward of America’s past, also promised to begin promoting a historical framework that emphasizes American racism in the past and today. The federal group pledged to “Address the historical roots and contemporary impacts of race and racism in the United States and globally through interdisciplinary scholarship, creative partnerships, dialogue, education, and engagement.” The Center Square has reported on other examples of DEI policies and grants becoming the norm in recent years as well, though much of this kind of spending began before the Biden-Harris administration took power. Those include: $2.6 million in taxpayer dollars to train students to promote critical race theory. Millions to train school teachers in DEI ideology around race and gender. A portion of New York's $9 billion in federal COVID funding was spent training staff in ‘privilege’ and to recognize ‘equity warriors,’" among other related themes. $1.2 million for research find evidence that racism is the culprit for minorities struggling to sleep at night.Is Dua Lipa Engaged to Callum Turner? 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Biden says he was ‘stupid’ not to put his name on pandemic relief checks like Trump didBy MICHELLE L. PRICE and ROB GILLIES NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s recent dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his visit to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral were not just exercises in policy and diplomacy. They were also prime trolling opportunities for Trump. Related Articles National Politics | Biden issues veto threat on bill expanding federal judiciary as partisan split emerges National Politics | Trump lawyers and aide hit with 10 additional felony charges in Wisconsin over 2020 fake electors National Politics | After withdrawing as attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz lands a talk show on OANN television National Politics | What will happen to Social Security under Trump’s tax plan? National Politics | Republican-led states are rolling out plans that could aid Trump’s mass deportation effort Throughout his first term in the White House and during his campaign to return, Trump has spun out countless provocative, antagonizing and mocking statements. There were his belittling nicknames for political opponents, his impressions of other political figures and the plentiful memes he shared on social media. Now that’s he’s preparing to return to the Oval Office, Trump is back at it, and his trolling is attracting more attention — and eyerolls. On Sunday, Trump turned a photo of himself seated near a smiling first lady Jill Biden at the Notre Dame ceremony into a social media promo for his new perfume and cologne line, with the tag line, “A fragrance your enemies can’t resist!” The first lady’s office declined to comment. When Trudeau hastily flew to Florida to meet with Trump last month over the president-elect’s threat to impose a 25% tax on all Canadian products entering the U.S., the Republican tossed out the idea that Canada become the 51st U.S. state. The Canadians passed off the comment as a joke, but Trump has continued to play up the dig, including in a post Tuesday morning on his social media network referring to the prime minister as “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada.” After decades as an entertainer and tabloid fixture, Trump has a flair for the provocative that is aimed at attracting attention and, in his most recent incarnation as a politician, mobilizing fans. He has long relished poking at his opponents, both to demean and minimize them and to delight supporters who share his irreverent comments and posts widely online and cheer for them in person. Trump, to the joy of his fans, first publicly needled Canada on his social media network a week ago when he posted an AI-generated image that showed him standing on a mountain with a Canadian flag next to him and the caption “Oh Canada!” After his latest post, Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday: “It sounds like we’re living in a episode of South Park.” Trudeau said earlier this week that when it comes to Trump, “his approach will often be to challenge people, to destabilize a negotiating partner, to offer uncertainty and even sometimes a bit of chaos into the well established hallways of democracies and institutions and one of the most important things for us to do is not to freak out, not to panic.” Even Thanksgiving dinner isn’t a trolling-free zone for Trump’s adversaries. On Thanksgiving Day, Trump posted a movie clip from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” with President Joe Biden and other Democrats’ faces superimposed on the characters in a spoof of the turkey-carving scene. The video shows Trump appearing to explode out of the turkey in a swirl of purple sparks, with the former president stiffly dancing to one of his favorite songs, Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” In his most recent presidential campaign, Trump mocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, refusing to call his GOP primary opponent by his real name and instead dubbing him “Ron DeSanctimonious.” He added, for good measure, in a post on his Truth Social network: “I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will.” As he campaigned against Biden, Trump taunted him in online posts and with comments and impressions at his rallies, deriding the president over his intellect, his walk, his golf game and even his beach body. After Vice President Kamala Harris took over Biden’s spot as the Democratic nominee, Trump repeatedly suggested she never worked at McDonalds while in college. Trump, true to form, turned his mocking into a spectacle by appearing at a Pennsylvania McDonalds in October, when he manned the fries station and held an impromptu news conference from the restaurant drive-thru. Trump’s team thinks people should get a sense of humor. “President Trump is a master at messaging and he’s always relatable to the average person, whereas many media members take themselves too seriously and have no concept of anything else other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome,” said Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director. “President Trump will Make America Great Again and we are getting back to a sense of optimism after a tumultuous four years.” Though both the Biden and Harris campaigns created and shared memes and launched other stunts to respond to Trump’s taunts, so far America’s neighbors to the north are not taking the bait. “I don’t think we should necessarily look on Truth Social for public policy,” Miller said. Gerald Butts, a former top adviser to Trudeau and a close friend, said Trump brought up the 51st state line to Trudeau repeatedly during Trump’s first term in office. “Oh God,” Butts said Tuesday, “At least a half dozen times.” “This is who he is and what he does. He’s trying to destabilize everybody and make people anxious,” Butts said. “He’s trying to get people on the defensive and anxious and therefore willing to do things they wouldn’t otherwise entertain if they had their wits about them. I don’t know why anybody is surprised by it.” Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
Social media poses a 'threat to democracy' due to its role in platforming political harassment, according to researchers behind a new report. In the five weeks leading up to the General Election, 55 incidents of threatening behaviour towards politicians were documented and analysed by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) and the Hope and Courage Collective (HCC). A report published by the two groups shows that social media featured in 89% of these incidents. ISD spokesperson Ciarán O'Connor said this should be seen as a 'threat to democracy'. "There is again a significant online and offline interplay, in which acts of intimidation or harassment occur offline, are filmed and then shared online to garner attention," he said. "This then has a multiplier effect of generating further cycles of abuse for those involved. "Yet again, significant platform failings and lack of enforcement of community guidelines are enabling extremists to act with impunity, target candidates and threaten our demoracy." The platforms that were seen to host the most hate and harassment were X and TikTok, which together featured in 65% of all incidents examined. According to the report, this may be as a result of 'permissive platform policies and unenforced guidelines', which could embolden far-right activists . Executive Director of the HCC Edel McGinley said these results were 'extremely concerning'. "This raises some ongoing questions about social media platforms' enforcement of community guidelines and standards and compliance with the Digital Service Act ,” she said. “The effects of sustained and repeated harassment cannot be understated and require a robust response from social media platforms, An Garda Síochána [and] the regulators. "Along with a commitment in the new programme for Government to address any gaps or lacunas in law to tackle this.” The report found the nature and scale of threats and harassment during the General Election to be 'markedly different' from the what was seen during the Local/European Elections. In general, it was found that there was less on-the-ground targeting, with more efforts concentrated online.
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Janey Godley forgave a large number of people ahead of her death - but she still singled out Donald Trump for harsh criticism. During the comedian's funeral service this morning, a priest opened up on the conversations he had had with Janey in her later days. Hundreds of mourners wearing bright colours gathered at St Mary's Cathedral, Great Western Road, Glasgow on Saturday morning to say their final goodbyes to the late comic. And the Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, Provost of St Mary's Cathedral, told of his meetings with Janey, who passed away after a battle with ovarian cancer earlier this month. At the service, Rev Holdsworth mentioned one particularly funny conversation he had with Janey had about the controversial American President-elect. Speaking during her service, he said: "Janey, knowing that she was dying, was making lists of people to forgive and that is what real religion and real humanity is made out of. Janey had a great deal to forgive, bad things had been done to her, I asked her how she was going to do that. "She said she was going to forgive everyone, including everyone who was going to be at the funeral because her love was bigger than anything that anyone could have done to her and by the way that's a lot of love. "I said 'Really Janey? Everyone? Can you really forgive everyone? She said 'yes everyone', I said 'what about American politics? Have you changed your mind on that?' Friends, Janey Godley died having forgiven everyone but she still believed to her dying day that Trump is a country mile away from anyone who should come near to power." The priest's comments had mourners in fits of laughter as they remembered Janey's viral ' Trump is a c***' protest. The comedian was one of many people who gathered to protest at Trump's Turnberry golf course in 2018. In typical fashion, Janey arrived at the demonstration wielding a poster containing her famed flowery language. It was one of the exploits that put her on the map, gaining global attention. Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon , Still Game's Gavin Mitchell, River City's Tom Urie and comic Susie McCabe were amongst those in attendance to pay tribute to Janey, who tragically passed away at the Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow on November 2 following a battle with ovarian cancer. Janey's daughter Ashley Storrie, who is also a comedian, gave a moving eulogy in which she spoke beautifully about her mum's incredible life. After telling stories of her memories of Janey , Ashley concluded: "She was a comedian, that was her thing first and foremost, she tried acting, she hated it, she was a terrible singer, she couldny knit, she tried, there's pictures of Liam Neeson with a hideous scarf to prove it. "But what she was, was a comedian so for one last time as I sit back down can you please put your hands together for my ma, Janey Godley ." Those that had gathered within the cathedral then gave Janey one final standing ovation, as an emotional Ashley was comforted by loved ones in the front row. Yesterday, the star was accompanied by a 100-strong female choir and best pal Shirley Doig as she made a "final tour" of Edinburgh . Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.