#Kenya Hospitality Report 2018

[touritesafaris]

The Potential of Proper Tourism Infrastructure for Destinations’ Growth

Kenya is set to become one of the top five fastest-growing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a projected rebound in GDP growth to 6% in 2018 and 7% by 2019 according to a Jumia hospitality report. Although the country’s economic performance declined to 4.9% in 2017 from 5.8% in 2016, several factors will continue to drive the economy and almost certainly help reach the estimated growth rate.…

[wikiuntamed]

On this day in Wikipedia: Thursday, 21st September

Welcome, 你好, Bienvenida, नमस्ते 🤗 What does @Wikipedia say about 21st September through the years 🏛️📜🗓️?

21st September 2022 🗓️ : Death - Raju Srivastav Raju Srivastav, Indian comedian, actor and politician (b. 1963) "Satya Prakash Srivastav (25 December 1963 – 21 September 2022), known professionally as Raju Srivastav and often credited as Gajodhar, was an Indian comedian, actor and politician. He was born in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, and moved to Mumbai in the 1980s to work in the Hindi film industry. He acted in..."

Image licensed under CC BY 3.0? by Bollywood Hungama

21st September 2018 🗓️ : Event - Killing of Zak Kostopoulos Killing of Zak Kostopoulos, LGBT rights activist beaten to death on a busy street in Athens "Zak Kostopoulos was killed on a busy street near Omonoia Square, Athens during the day on 21 September 2018, first beaten by civilians and later by the police. The victim, an LGBT rights activist in Greece, died on the way to the hospital. The suspects in the case are awaiting trial for inflicting..."

Image licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0? by Ggia

21st September 2013 🗓️ : Event - Westgate shopping mall attack Unidentified gunmen began a three-day attack on the upmarket Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, resulting in the deaths of 67 people with at least another 175 wounded. "On 21 September 2013, four masked gunmen attacked the Westgate shopping mall, an upmarket mall in Nairobi, Kenya. There are conflicting reports about the number killed in the attack, since part of the mall collapsed due to a fire that started during the siege. The attack resulted in 71 total deaths,..."

Image licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0? by Anne Knight

21st September 1973 🗓️ : Birth - Vanessa Grigoriadis Vanessa Grigoriadis, American journalist and author "Vanessa Maia Grigoriadis is an American journalist. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stone among other publications. ..."

21st September 1923 🗓️ : Birth - Fred Hunt (musician) Fred Hunt, British jazz pianist (d. 1986) "Herbert Frederick Hunt (21 September 1923 – 25 April 1986) was an English jazz pianist. ..."

21st September 1823 🗓️ : Event - Joseph Smith According to Joseph Smith, he was first visited by the Angel Moroni, who would guide him to the golden plates that became the basis of the Book of Mormon. "Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thousands of followers by the time of his death fourteen years later. The..."

Image by Likely William Warner Major see http://silverepicent.com/photofound/photofound/Photograph_Found/Appendix_C.html

21st September 🗓️ : Holiday - Christian feast day: September 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) "Sep. 20 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - Sep. 22 All fixed commemorations below celebrated on October 4 by Orthodox Churches on the Old Calendar.For September 21st, Orthodox Churches on the Old Calendar commemorate the Saints listed on September 8. ..."

Image by njk92

[eretzyisrael]

Prejudice against the Jewish state is so intense in the Western media that praiseworthy actions guaranteed to hit the headlines if attributable to any other country are frequently ignored, diminished or denigrated when it comes to Israel. When there is a disaster anywhere in the world, for example, Israel is often the first, or among the first, to offer assistance and send in relief workers. Most recently, last month the Israel Defence Forces dispatched a team to Honduras following the devastation of category 4 hurricanes Eta and Iota which left thousands homeless.

In the last 15 years IDF relief missions have deployed in Albania, Brazil, Mexico, Nepal, the Philippines, Ghana, Bulgaria, Turkey, Japan, Columbia, Haiti, Kenya, the US, Sri Lanka and Egypt — and many other countries in the years before.

Under Operation Good Neighbour, between 2016 and 2018, the IDF set up field hospitals on the Syrian border to treat civilians wounded by violence in their country and sent vital supplies directly into Syria, a nation which is at war with Israel, to help suffering people there.

Few outside Israel, Jewish communities around the world and the places that have benefited from IDF assistance have any idea of any of this because the media is not interested. In some cases, news items about countries contributing teams to disaster relief have omitted Israel despite knowing the IDF was playing an important role.

The same negative policy extends to other major benefits that Israel has brought to the world, including scientific innovation, medical technology and life-saving intelligence. It goes against editorial agendas to report on the Jewish state in a positive light unless they can somehow twist a good story to turn it bad.

This week we have seen exactly that in newspapers and broadcast media on both sides of the Atlantic as they contort themselves — and the truth — to bash Israel over its remarkable success in vaccinating against Coronavirus. In the UK, the Guardian newspaper reported:

"Two weeks into its vaccination campaign, Israel is administering more than 150,000 doses a day, amounting to initial jabs for more than 1 million of its 9 million citizens — a higher proportion of the population than anywhere else".

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 9.13

585 BC – Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, king of Rome, celebrates a triumph for his victories over the Sabines, and the surrender of Collatia. 509 BC – The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Rome's Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September. 379 – Yax Nuun Ahiin I is crowned as 15th Ajaw of Tikal 533 – Belisarius of the Byzantine Empire defeats Gelimer and the Vandals at the Battle of Ad Decimum, near Carthage, North Africa. 1229 – Ögedei Khan is proclaimed Khagan of the Mongol Empire in Kodoe Aral, Khentii: Mongolia. 1437 – Battle of Tangier: a Portuguese expeditionary force initiates a failed attempt to seize the Moroccan citadel of Tangier. 1501 – Italian Renaissance: Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David. 1504 – Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand issue a Royal Warrant for the construction of a Royal Chapel (Capilla Real) to be built. 1541 – After three years of exile, John Calvin returns to Geneva to reform the church under a body of doctrine known as Calvinism. 1584 – San Lorenzo del Escorial Palace in Madrid is finished. 1609 – Henry Hudson reaches the river that would later be named after him – the Hudson River. 1645 – Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Scottish Royalists are defeated by Covenanters at the Battle of Philiphaugh. 1743 – Great Britain, Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia sign the Treaty of Worms. 1759 – Battle of the Plains of Abraham: the British defeat the French near Quebec City in the Seven Years' War, known in the United States as the French and Indian War. 1782 – American Revolutionary War: Franco-Spanish troops launch the unsuccessful "grand assault" during the Great Siege of Gibraltar. 1788 – The Philadelphia Convention sets the date for the first presidential election in the United States, and New York City becomes the country's temporary capital. 1791 – King Louis XVI of France accepts the new constitution. 1808 – Finnish War: In the Battle of Jutas, Swedish forces under Lieutenant General Georg Carl von Döbeln beat the Russians, making von Döbeln a Swedish war hero. 1812 – War of 1812: A supply wagon sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack at the Narrows. 1814 – In a turning point in the War of 1812, the British fail to capture Baltimore. During the battle, Francis Scott Key composes his poem "Defence of Fort McHenry", which is later set to music and becomes the United States' national anthem. 1843 – The Greek Army rebels (OS date: September 3) against the autocratic rule of king Otto of Greece, demanding the granting of a constitution. 1847 – Mexican–American War: Six teenage military cadets known as Niños Héroes die defending Chapultepec Castle in the Battle of Chapultepec. American troops under General Winfield Scott capture Mexico City in the Mexican–American War. 1848 – Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage survives an iron rod 1+1⁄4 inches (3.2 cm) in diameter being driven through his brain; the reported effects on his behavior and personality stimulate discussion of the nature of the brain and its functions. 1862 – American Civil War: Union soldiers find a copy of Robert E. Lee's battle plans in a field outside Frederick, Maryland. It is the prelude to the Battle of Antietam. 1882 – Anglo-Egyptian War: The Battle of Tel el-Kebir is fought. 1898 – Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film. 1899 – Henry Bliss is the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident. 1899 – Mackinder, Ollier and Brocherel make the first ascent of Batian (5,199 m – 17,058 ft), the highest peak of Mount Kenya. 1900 – Filipino insurgents defeat a small American column in the Battle of Pulang Lupa, during the Philippine–American War. 1906 – The Santos-Dumont 14-bis makes a short hop, the first flight of a fixed-wing aircraft in Europe. 1914 – World War I: The Battle of Aisne begins between Germany and France. 1922 – The final act of the Greco-Turkish War, the Great Fire of Smyrna, commences. 1923 – Following a military coup in Spain, Miguel Primo de Rivera takes over, setting up a dictatorship. 1933 – Elizabeth McCombs becomes the first woman elected to the New Zealand Parliament. 1942 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge in the Guadalcanal Campaign. U.S. Marines successfully defeated attacks by the Japanese with heavy losses for the Japanese forces. 1944 – World War II: Start of the Battle of Meligalas between the Greek Resistance forces of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) and the collaborationist security battalions. 1948 – Deputy Prime Minister of India Vallabhbhai Patel orders the Army to move into Hyderabad to integrate it with the Indian Union. 1948 – Margaret Chase Smith is elected United States senator, and becomes the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate. 1953 – Nikita Khrushchev is appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 1956 – The IBM 305 RAMAC is introduced, the first commercial computer to use disk storage. 1956 – The dike around the Dutch polder East Flevoland is closed. 1962 – An appeals court orders the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith, the first African-American student admitted to the segregated university. 1964 – South Vietnamese Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Dương Văn Đức fail in a coup attempt against General Nguyễn Khánh. 1964 – Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd of 20,000 West Berliners on Sunday, in Waldbühne. 1968 – Cold War: Albania leaves the Warsaw Pact. 1971 – State police and National Guardsmen storm New York's Attica Prison to quell a prison revolt, which claimed 43 lives. 1971 – Chairman Mao Zedong's second in command and successor Marshal Lin Biao flees China after the failure of an alleged coup. His plane crashes in Mongolia, killing all aboard. 1977 – General Motors introduces Diesel engine, with Oldsmobile Diesel engine, in the Delta 88, Oldsmobile 98, and Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser models amongst others. 1979 – South Africa grants independence to the "homeland" of Venda (not recognised outside South Africa). 1982 – Spantax Flight 995 crashes at Málaga Airport during a rejected takeoff, killing 50 of the 394 people on board. 1985 – Super Mario Bros. is released in Japan for the NES, which starts the Super Mario series of platforming games. 1987 – Goiânia accident: A radioactive object is stolen from an abandoned hospital in Goiânia, Brazil, contaminating many people in the following weeks and causing some to die from radiation poisoning. 1988 – Hurricane Gilbert is the strongest recorded hurricane in the Western Hemisphere, later replaced by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 (based on barometric pressure). 1989 – Largest anti-Apartheid march in South Africa, led by Desmond Tutu. 1993 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shakes hands with Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat at the White House after signing the Oslo Accords granting limited Palestinian autonomy. 1997 – A German Air Force Tupolev Tu-154 and a United States Air Force Lockheed C-141 Starlifter collide in mid-air near Namibia, killing 33. 2001 – Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the United States after the September 11 attacks. 2007 – The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. 2007 – The McLaren F1 team were found guilty of possessing confidential information from the Ferrari team, and were fined $100 million and were excluded from the constructors' championship standings. 2008 – Delhi, India, is hit by a series of bomb blasts, resulting in 30 deaths and 130 injuries. 2008 – Hurricane Ike makes landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast of the United States, causing heavy damage to Galveston Island, Houston, and surrounding areas. 2013 – Taliban insurgents attack the United States consulate in Herat, Afghanistan, with two members of the Afghan National Police reported dead and about 20 civilians injured. 2018 – The Merrimack Valley gas explosions: One person is killed, 25 are injured, and 40 homes are destroyed when excessive natural gas pressure caused fires and explosions.

[newstfionline]

Friday, May 7, 2021

60 years since 1st American in space: Tourists lining up (AP) Sixty years after Alan Shepard became the first American in space, everyday people are on the verge of following in his cosmic footsteps. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin used Wednesday’s anniversary to kick off an auction for a seat on the company’s first crew spaceflight—a short Shepard-like hop launched by a rocket named New Shepard. The Texas liftoff is targeted for July 20, the date of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic aims to kick off tourist flights next year. And Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch a billionaire and his sweepstakes winners in September. That will be followed by a flight by three businessmen to the International Space Station in January.

The U.S. birthrate is falling; other countries have faced the same problem (Washington Post) With the U.S. birthrate declining for the sixth year in a row and undergoing its largest drop in nearly 50 years, according to provisional data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States is facing a dilemma with which many wealthy nations in Europe and Asia have long grappled. Instead of trying to ramp up immigration, some governments have tried subsidizing fertility treatments, offering free day care and generous parental leave, and paying thousands of dollars in cash grants to parents. But there’s little evidence that these policies have been effective on a large scale. South Korea, for instance, spent roughly $120 billion between 2005 and 2018 to incentivize having children, but its birthrate continued to fall. Singapore began offering new child-care subsidies, more-generous maternity leave policies and grants for new parents that today amount to $7,330 per baby. But those interventions didn’t reverse the trend: Singapore currently has the world’s third-lowest fertility rate. And Japan, Russia, Estonia and other nations have similar problems.

Protest road blockades halt Colombian coffee exports, federation says (Reuters) Road blockades connected to anti-government protests in Colombia, which marked their eighth day on Wednesday, have halted shipments of top agricultural export coffee, the head of the grower’s federation said. The protests, originally called in opposition to a now-canceled tax reform plan, are now demanding the government take action to tackle poverty, police violence and inequalities in the health and education systems. Twenty-four people, mostly demonstrators, have died. “We are stopped completely, exports are stopped, there is no movement of coffee to ports nor internally,” federation head Roberto Velez said in a phone interview.

20 dead in Rio de Janeiro shootout (Reuters) At least 20 people, including a police officer, died on Thursday in a shootout during a police operation against drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro’s Jacarezinho shanty town, O Globo newspaper reported on its website. Two passengers on a metro train were also wounded in the shooting in the northern Rio neighborhood, the newspaper said.

Gunboats and blockade threats as U.K., France clash over fishing (NBC News) The U.K. and France were engaged in a naval standoff on Thursday as a long-simmering dispute over post-Brexit fishing rights escalated in the English Channel. France deployed two maritime patrol boats to the waters off the British Channel island of Jersey, its navy said, after the British Navy dispatched two of its own vessels to the area late Wednesday. The dueling moves came as a flotilla of French fishing trawlers sailed to the Jersey port of St. Helier to protest over fishing rights. The French government has suggested it could cut power supplies to the island if its fishermen are not granted full access to U.K. fishing waters under post-Brexit trading terms. Clément Beaune, the French secretary of state for European affairs, told AFP on Thursday that Paris will “not be intimidated” by the British. On the other side of the Channel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged his "unwavering support" for the island after he spoke with Jersey officials about the prospect of a French blockade. Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands with a population of 108,000, is geographically closer to France than Britain. It sits just 14 miles off the French coast and receives most of its electricity from France via undersea cables.

Ukraine wants aid, NATO support from Blinken’s visit (AP) U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Ukrainian counterpart in Kyiv Thursday, telling him that he was there to “reaffirm strongly” Washington’s commitment to Ukraine’s “sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.” Blinken also assured Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba that the U.S. was committed “to work with you and continue to strengthen your own democracy, building institutions, advancing your reforms against corruption.” By visiting so early in his tenure, before any trip to Russia, Blinken is signaling that Ukraine is a high foreign-policy priority for President Joe Biden’s administration. But what he can, or will, deliver in the meeting later with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is unclear.

India hits another grim record as it scrambles for oxygen supply (AP) Infections in India hit another grim daily record on Thursday as demand for medical oxygen jumped seven-fold and the government denied reports that it was slow in distributing life-saving supplies from abroad. The number of new confirmed cases breached 400,000 for the second time since the devastating surge began last month. The 412,262 cases pushed India’s tally to more than 21 million. The Health Ministry also reported 3,980 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 230,168. Experts believe both figures are an undercount. Eleven COVID-19 patients died as the pressure in the oxygen line dropped suddenly in a government medical college hospital in Chengalpet town in southern India on Wednesday night, possibly because of a faulty valve, The Times of India newspaper reported. Hospital authorities said they had repaired the pipeline last week, but the consumption of oxygen doubled since then, the daily said.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid gains chance to form government, oust Netanyahu (Washington Post) Yair Lapid, a former news anchor and leader of Israel’s centrist opposition, was picked to negotiate a new governing coalition Wednesday, opening the possibility of Israel getting its first government not led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in more than a decade. President Reuven Rivlin tapped Lapid to make the next attempt to form a government one day after Netanyahu failed to assemble a parliamentary majority after 28 days of effort. Under Israel’s system, Lapid also has four weeks to craft a power-sharing plan. If he falls short, the president could open to the process to any member of the Knesset or call for Israel’s fifth election since the spring of 2019. Lapid will face a stiff challenge in trying to find common ground among the range of anti-Netanyahu parties elected in March. As a bloc, they would control enough seats to secure a majority. But ideologically, they range from the far right to the far left of Israel’s political spectrum. They also include Israeli Arab parties that traditionally play no part in supporting governing coalitions but that may be needed this time.

Instagram fuels rise in black-market sales of maids into Persian Gulf servitude (Washington Post) The advent of Instagram in recent years has helped create an international black market for migrant workers, in particular women recruited in Africa and Asia who are sold into servitude as maids in Persian Gulf countries. Unlicensed agents have exploited the social media platform to place these women into jobs that often lack documentation or assurances of proper pay and working conditions. Several women who were marketed via Instagram described being treated essentially as captives and forced to work grueling hours for far less money than they had been promised. “They advertise us on social media, then the employer picks. Then we are delivered to their house. We are not told anything about the employers. You’re just told to take your stuff, and a driver takes you there,” said Vivian, 24, from Kenya. Domestic servants sold on the platform described encountering threats, exploitation and abuse. The agencies which marketed them, meanwhile, made thousands of dollars. In response to a request for comment last month, an Instagram spokesperson asked for the list of accounts identified by The Post so company officials could investigate. Instagram has since deleted these accounts.

Nonuplets: Woman From Mali Gives Birth To 9 Babies (NPR) A Malian woman has given birth to nine babies, in what could become a world record. Halima Cissé had been expecting to have seven newborns: ultrasound sessions had failed to spot two of her babies. "The newborns (five girls and four boys) and the mother are all doing well," Mali's health minister, Dr. Fanta Siby, said in an announcement about the births. Professor Youssef Alaoui, medical director of the private Ain Borja clinic in Casablanca where Cissé gave birth, said the babies were born at 30 weeks. The newborns weighed between 500 grams and 1 kilogram (about 1.1 to 2.2 pounds), he told journalists. The clinic has deployed a team of around 30 staff members to aid the mother's delivery and care for her nine children.

Nigeria reels from nationwide wave of deadly violence (The Guardian) Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari has come under mounting pressure from critics and allies alike as the country reels from multiple security crises that have claimed hundreds of lives in recent weeks. An alarming wave of violence has left millions in Africa’s most populous country in uproar at the collapse in security. Attacks by jihadist groups in the north-east have been compounded by a sharp rise in abductions targeting civilians in schools and at interstate links across Nigeria. Mass killings by bandit groups in rural towns, a reported rise in armed robberies in urban areas and increasingly daring attacks on security forces by pro-Biafran militants in the south-east have also all risen. In April alone, almost 600 civilians were killed across the country and at least 406 abducted by armed groups, according to analysis by the Council on Foreign Relations. The violence has left much of the country on edge and Buhari facing the fiercest criticism since he took office.

[creepingsharia]

“We Shall Come for Your Head Soon”: Muslim Persecution of Christians, February 2019

‘Muslim men beat and raped a Christian woman and mother of four for leaving Islam. The 41-year-old woman became a secret Christian in 2017; however, threats began after Somali Muslims saw her at a church...’

by Raymond Ibrahim

Massacres of Christians

Nigeria: A number of fatal Islamic terror attacks targeting Christians occurred throughout February:

February 10: Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed 10 Christians and an unborn child.  Armed herdsmen in large numbers had surrounded the Christian village around 11 p.m. the (Saturday) night before. “We heard gun shots, and this forced me and my family to remain in our bedrooms as it was difficult for us to run out of the house,” said one survivor. “The Fulani gunmen surrounded our house and were shooting and shouting, ‘Allahu akbar [God is greater].’ They killed my father, mother, two brothers, and one of my sisters-in-law.”  The attack came as a complete surprise, even for the village head:  “We have never had any misunderstanding with the Fulani herdsmen, so I don’t know why they attacked our village,” he said. “Ten members of my community, including a pregnant woman, were killed during the attack, thus making the unborn child to be the eleventh victim.”

February 12:  In the northeast, Boko Haram jihadis invaded four Christian communities, killing several Christians and displacing many others. “I saw a man who I know to be a Christian and a member of the Church of the Brethren in Shuwa, my home town, shot to death,” said one eyewitness. “Also, Bulama, a community leader in Madagali, was shot dead alongside many Christians.”

February 26: Muslim Fulani herdsmen slaughtered at least 32 people in Maro, a Christian village in north-central Nigeria.  Churches were also damaged and a boarding school shut down. “We ran out of the church building as the shooting was going on,” said a woman who was in a Bible study class when the raid began.  “Many have been killed, and I have not seen my family members since morning. I have escaped out of the area.” Another local Christian said, “The armed herdsmen are shooting anyone they see and are setting fire on houses and church buildings.”

Reported on February 25: Muslim herdsmen attacked a Christian wedding celebration, killing 12 people.  “From behind the hill overlooking this village emerged armed Fulani herdsmen who shot indiscriminately at Christians from various churches here at the venue of the feast,” said one local. “Twelve Christians who are members of various churches were shot dead instantly, while another five Christians were injured.”  Six of those murdered were children.

Burkina Faso: Muslim terrorists slaughtered a 72-year-old Christian missionary in the Muslim-majority African nation. According to the report, “Antonio Cesar Fernandez was travelling with two colleagues from Togo back to their community in the capital Ouagadougou when a group of jihadists stopped their car. After searching the vehicle they made the 72-year get out and took him to a forested area. A few minutes later there was the sound of shots.”  Antonio had been a missionary in Africa since 1982.

Attacks on Churches

Ethiopia: Angry Muslim mobs attacked ten Christian churches. “The incensed crowds comprising Muslim residents of all ages from across the town made their way to the churches chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ after being given false information that a mosque in the surrounding countryside had been fire-bombed,” said a local. “The contents of all the churches were removed from the buildings and set on fire on the street.”  According to the report,

One of the attacked churches, Meserete Kristos Church, has since been vandalized again, and area Christians have faced intimidation and threats…  While Kale Hiwot Galeto church building was destroyed in the Feb. 9 attack, aid workers believe the other nine church buildings were not set ablaze only because of the risk to neighboring Muslim-owned properties.  Municipal police were present during almost every attack but took no action….  More than 9,900 worshippers are estimated to attend the 10 churches. A small number of Christians sustained minor injuries and returned home after receiving hospital treatment, including two that were more seriously injured… Huge amounts of property were destroyed, including Bibles, song books, instruments, benches and chairs….

France:  During just the first two weeks of February, “[a]t least 10 incidents of vandalism and desecration of Catholic churches have been reported in France,” notes a February 15 report. “Vandals in Catholic churches throughout the country have smashed statues, knocked down tabernacles, scattered or destroyed the Eucharist, burnt altar cloths and torn down crosses, among other acts of desecration of religious items.” The St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Houilles was vandalized on three separate occasions in February; a 19th century statue of the Virgin Mary deemed “irreparable” was “completely pulverized,” said a clergyman, and a hanging cross was thrown to the floor.   Similarly, Vandals desecrated and smashed crosses and statues at Saint-Alain Cathedral in Lavaur; they mangled the arms of a crucified Christ in a mocking manner; an altar cloth was burned. “God will forgive. Not me,” the city’s mayor said.  On the very next day, Vandals plundered and used human excrement to draw a cross on the Notre-Dame des Enfants Church in Nimes; consecrated bread was found thrown outside among the garbage.  According to Father Emmanuel Pic from Notre-Dame parish, “Nothing of value has been broken, but it is the intent that is very shocking. This is what characterizes profanation.” The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe added that “It is our sincere hope that the perpetrators are brought to justice and that awareness of increasing anti-Christian hostility in France reaches the public square.”

Turkey: On Sunday, February 23, threatening graffiti messages were found on the main entrance door of the Armenian Church of the Holy Mother of God in Istanbul. The Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople said in a statement that “There were written racist and hate speeches in both English and Arabic [saying] you are finished!” One Armenian writer shared images of the vandalism on Twitter and wrote, “The walls and the door of the Balat Surp Armenian Church. We built its entrance with rocks from the historical church in İznik [Nicaea], where the council met [Council of Nicaea, 325]…. Now they say, ‘YOU ARE FINISHED.’ There are no local [Armenian] people left. The ‘New Turkey!’” Commenting on this latest church attack, an Armenian Member of Parliament, tweeted, “Every year, scores of hate attacks are being carried out against churches and synagogues. Not just the perpetrators, but also the people who are behind them, should be addressed. For the most important part, the politics that produce hate should be ended.”

Egypt:  Due to the closure of their church in December 2018, Coptic Christians held their third funeral in the middle of the street in February.  They had long tried to get the necessary permits to register their unofficial church, to no avail.  According to the report,

The village currently has no church, but there are approximately 2500 Coptic Christians living there… The police had closed the church in order to pacify the Islamists, who used a nearby mosque’s microphone to rally Muslim villagers against the Christians….  Unfortunately, the situation in Kom al-Raheb is commonplace throughout Egypt. Police frequently cave to the demands of hardline Islamists instead of protecting the right of Christians to freely practice their faith. When churches are closed, Christians are left to worship and hold rites (such as funerals) in the street.

Attacks on Apostates, Blasphemers, and Evangelists

Kenya: Muslim men beat and raped a Christian woman and mother of four for leaving Islam.   The 41-year-old woman became a secret Christian in 2017; in 2018, however, the threats began, after Somali Muslims saw her at a church: “We have known that you are a Christian, and one of us saw you come out of a church on Sunday,” read one message. “If you continue attending the church, then we shall come for your head soon.”  She and her four children, who had also converted to Christianity, quickly relocated. Then, on January 2, four Somali Muslims forced their way into the Christian family’s home: “I was beaten and then raped by four men who threatened me, telling me not to say anything about the ordeal that I went through.  As they left the house at 1 a.m., one of them said, ‘We could have killed you for being a disgrace to Islam and joining Christianity, which is against our religion, but since you are a single mother, we have decided to spare your life with the condition that you should not mention our names.’”

Pakistan: On February 19, four Christian women were falsely accused of blasphemy, prompting “enraged Muslims” to riot and dislocate approximately 200 Christian families from the village.  Problems began when a Christian landlord asked a Muslim couple to leave, because they had been “causing trouble among the Christian families in the community,” to quote locals.  In retaliation, the Muslim wife accused four Christian women—three of whom were the landlord’s daughters—of desecrating a Koran.  “As news of the accusation spread, a mob of enraged Muslims gathered … and attacked several Christian properties, including [the landlord’s] house and a nearby church. The mob killed pets, livestock, and damaged several Christian homes by stoning them.”  Soon after a police investigation began, “it was revealed that Samina Riaz [the Muslim accuser] borrowed a copy of the Quran from Khalid Khan, a nearby shopkeeper,” explained a local involved with the case. “When she reached home, she threw it into a water tub in the restroom. She purposely alleged the Christian women of desecrating the Holy Book of Islam.”  Even though Samina Riaz confessed to framing the Christians, “members of the mob are still refusing to allow Christians to open their churches,” says the report.

Meanwhile, Asia Bibi, a Christian mother who was in prison — and on death row — for nearly a decade, was finally acquitted in late 2018. However, apparently to placate tens of thousands of angry Muslims who rioted and protested all throughout Pakistan, authorities still kept her a prisoner. In a February 9 report, which until very recently contained the latest information concerning Asia’s whereabouts, AP quoted a human rights campaigner in contact with her: he saidthe government had her and her husband locked in a single room where “the door opens at food time only.” She was permitted to make phone calls in the morning and at night, usually to her daughters. “She has no indication of when she will leave…. They are not telling her why she cannot leave.” Because many Muslims have vowed to kill her, “At the moment, she has security, but she could face problems any moment, any time, and it could happen very quickly,” said the contact. Most recently, on May 8, it was reported that Bibi had finally left Pakistan and was at long last reunited with her family in Canada.

Ethiopia: “An Ethiopian police officer was arrested, dismissed and forced to move to another part of the country after he told colleagues about his Christian faith,” says a report.  The 25-year-old man, using the pseudonym of Adane, grew up in Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region, which is “nearly 100 percent Muslim.”  Although he became Christian two years ago, problems for him began when another policeman “recently filed a complaint against him with the Somali State Human Rights Office. He had been heard talking about his newly found Christian faith while in uniform.”  The deputy chairman of the Human Rights Office, an ethnic Somali himself, was reportedly “greatly surprised to discover that there actually was a Christian within the tribe.”  He “advised Adane to return to Islam. Adane refused, claiming a constitutional right to religious freedom. He was then arrested.  Following intervention by the Human Rights Office-chairman, Adane was released, only to find he had been dismissed from the police force. The chairman advised Adane to relocate to another area because he had made too many enemies locally…”

Iran:  February witnessed a significant increase of state sanctioned persecution of Christians.  In the city of Rasht, nine Christians were arrested and detained.  One of them, a pastor who took over after his predecessor was arrested, was himself arrested on February 10, during church service. Although Rasht has had its fair share of persecution—at least three Christians from there recently received a sentence of 80 lashes—“[t]he past month represents the heaviest wave of publicly known arrests in Rasht within the last three years,” says the report.  “It is the policy of the Islamic government not to put thousands of Christians in jail,” explained Dr. Hormoz Shariat, a human rights activist. “Their policy is to arrest a few and put maximum sentence on minor offenses [such as holding church meetings in a home]. They then publicize it in order to put fear in the hearts of Christians. Their strategy is causing fear and isolation.” 

In another incident reported on February 1, five women, former Muslims who had converted to Christianity, were arrested.   One of the women, a 65 year-old, was arrested in her home.  According to the report,  

Authorities confiscated several of her personal items, including electronics and Christian materials (such as Bibles), while searching her residence. She was detained for ten days and interrogated during that time. She was temporarily released after paying a bail of 30 million Toman [$600]. However, she was later charged with “acting against national security.” The prosecutor forced her to visit an Islamic religious leader who offered her the opportunity to return back to Islam.

Another of the apostate women faced the charge of “disturbing public order, propagating Christianity, and connecting with foreign entities.”  If convicted, all these Christians could face up to ten years in prison.

Tajikistan: New amendments to the Muslim majority nation’s religion law are being used to exercise tighter control over its small Christian community. As one February 25 report explains, “Tajik authorities implementing a new religion law are barring children from attending religious [church] services and have burned [five] thousands of calendars with Bible verses.” 

Hostility for and Violence against Christians

Germany: On February 15, “in the multicultural district of Berlin Neukölln, a Christian from Iraq was hit in the face by a Muslim … and threatened with a knife because of a Christian tattoo,” said a February 17 report (in translation).  Two men approached the 27-year-old Iraqi Christian, “on account of his religious tattoo,” and demanded money.  “He did not comply with this request, whereupon one of the unknown held him and the other beat him several times in the face,” while drawing out a knife.  The Christian eventually managed to escape.  One of the two assailants were arrested.  According to the police report, “The arrested person claims to be of Muslim faith.”

-------------------------

Read it all, and years worth of previous reports, at the link below.

[adventurekenya]

The Impact of Technology and OTAs to the Hospitality Industry

The Impact of Technology and OTAs to the Hospitality Industry

The importance of technology in tourism and hospitality is at the center of the World Tourism Day(WTD) 2018, providing opportunities for innovation and preparing the sector for the future of work. According to UNWTO’s Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, “harnessing innovation and digital advances provides tourism with opportunities to improve inclusiveness, local community empowerment and…

[calzona-ga]

Timely stories, inspiring legions of medical students and empowering women (and its cast): showrunner Krista Vernoff and star Ellen Pompeo and the rest of the cast talk with The Hollywood Reporter about breaking 'ER's' record as TV's longest-running medical drama.

Two weeks before Grey's Anatomy's March 2005 series debut, series star Ellen Pompeo thought her ABC medical drama was, in her words, "dead in the water."

"The day the network changed our title to Complications it was like someone died in here," leading lady Pompeo tells The Hollywood Reporter from the show's L.A. set during an early January visit.

The title change would not stick. Two days later, ABC would revert back to Grey's Anatomy and, now, 14 years and 332 episodes later, Grey's Anatomy, with Thursday's installment, will break ER's status as TV's longest-running primetime medical drama.

It's a feat that creator Shonda Rhimes and showrunner Krista Vernoff, who spent the first seven seasons working under the former, never expected during the show's early days.

"After we produced 10 of our 12 episodes that first year, I went away to make a pilot and my assistant stayed behind in L.A. and she called me and said, 'They're making us pack up our offices.' They made us move out. They didn't think we were getting a season two," says Vernoff, who worked with former ER showrunner John Wells on Showtime's Shameless before being hand-picked by Rhimes to take over Grey's in season 14. "We owe a huge debt of gratitude to ER — without it, Grey's wouldn't exist. … We have surprised everybody — and ourselves. The staying power is amazing."

And the Seattle-set drama really does have some staying power. Seriously. It ranks as ABC's No. 1 series for the 2018-19 broadcast season with an impressive average of a 3.1 rating among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic. Grey's is also, sources say, one of Netflix's top performing acquired series. The streamer has helped bring in a new legion of viewers that further propels first-run originals on ABC. What's more, Grey's has global reach: It is the key asset among all the Shondaland shows that have been licensed in more than 235 territories worldwide and dubbed in more than 67 languages. Grey's remains a top performer for foreign broadcasters and has been adapted into localized versions in Mexico, Colombia and Turkey. The series remains a top-performing U.S. drama abroad.

"It's a $4 billion business and it's everywhere in the world," says Pompeo, who ranks as TV's highest-paid leading lady on a primetime drama series with $20 million per season (plus points of the show's lucrative back end and producing fees). Adds Vernoff: "Shonda says I'm leading a multibillion-dollar worldwide corporation but if I think about that for too long, I won't be able to get out of bed!"

Global Reach Every single one of the current 11 Grey's series regulars has a story about the impact of their show. Most of them include anecdotes from viewers — and their children — about entering the medical field and becoming surgeons and nurses because of Grey's. "Graduating female surgeons have gone through the roof since Grey's Anatomy started," says Caterina Scorsone, who is the only (primetime, live-action) actor to start on a spinoff as series regular and wind up holding the same status on the original series.

Kevin McKidd — who was originally cast as a love interest for Sandra Oh's Cristina Yang and has now appeared in more Grey's episodes than the Killing Eve star did during her tenure — was recognized a few years ago on a dirt road in the "middle of nowhere in Mozambique," where he was helping a doctor friend improve conditions at a local hospital. "To see that in the farthest reaches of a very poor and struggling country there was this show that inspires people was pretty emotional," he says.

TV legend Debbie Allen, who exec produces, directs and has a recurring role, says she's now approached more about her time on Grey's than her iconic part on Fame. "I was in Cuba and accosted by these young girls who were screaming, 'Katherine Avery!'" she says with a laugh.

Giacomo Gianniotti, who has been a regular since season 12, is now repeatedly spotted in his home of Italy. "Because I'm Italian, there's this pride — like one of us made it to America and made it on our show that we watch," he says. "I traveled to Kenya doing some volunteer work this summer and a lot of people approached me to say they love Grey's. The reach is just huge."

Sums up Pompeo, who had an impact off-screen when she fought for her record-breaking salary: "Everywhere I go I get, 'My daughter is a surgeon because of you.'"

Empowering From the Start Grey's was the first TV series creator Rhimes got on the air. (ABC previously passed on a Rhimes drama about female war correspondents). Grey's broke out in season two and became a cultural phenomenon, contributing terms like "vajayjay" and "McDreamy" to pop culture. Grey's has also birthed two spinoffs — Private Practice, which ran for six seasons and 111 episodes — and Station 19, which is currently in its second season on ABC. The success of Grey's has led to other opportunities for Rhimes, who really broke out with ABC's political soap Scandal. That series built on Rhimes' penchant for color blind casting on Grey's. (Former star Isaiah Washington nearly played the McDreamy part that went to Patrick Dempsey, while network execs expected Oh's role of Cristina to be played by a white actress.)

"When they had me come in to read for the role of chief of surgery, I hadn't seen an African-American in that kind of role before," says James Pickens Jr., who remembers sitting next to Rhimes at the 2005 upfronts when she hoped to get five or seven episodes on the air. "Grey's is more than just entertainment. Shonda always wanted to make sure that the show impacted the landscape in a way that we hadn't seen before on TV. I like to think that Grey's had a big part in how the industry casts shows."

In addition to Rhimes' breakout success — she left her longtime home at ABC Studios last year for a $300 million Netflix overall deal — the cast has also been able to add to their skillsets. Grey's has launched directing careers for stars including showrunner Vernoff, Pompeo (who made her debut in season 14), Jesse Williams, McKidd and Wilson, the latter of whom helmed Thursday's record-breaking hour. (Former star Sarah Drew also earned an Emmy nomination last year for directing a Grey's digital short.)

"The atmosphere here is if you want to try something, you're encouraged," says Wilson, who along with Pompeo, Justin Chambers and Pickens is one of the four remaining original stars.

For Williams, that outlook has also afforded him the opportunity to build up his own businesses. "Grey's has made a home for me so that I can launch three tech companies and can go on speaking tours and live a life. A lot of that has to do with being on a show that's run by women and people who can actually multitask," says Williams, who will direct again this season.

Grey's has also created a safe space for its (many!) pregnant stars, who have always been afforded job security. Wilson, for her part, thought she'd be written out of the series when she told Rhimes of her pregnancy early on in the show's run. Instead, it was written into Bailey's season two storyline (and the character's son is now old enough to have been featured in a season 14 episode exploring unconscious bias).

"Instead of shunning it and hoping you don't get pregnant, I watch producers actively encourage all of our actors to have a family," Williams says. "That is the formula and secret for longevity: feeding into a healthy life and happiness instead of running from it or trying to press you out of it."

Opening Hearts, Changing Minds Beyond creating a new legion of directors and producers (Pompeo has an overall deal with ABC Studios and produces both Grey's and Station 19), the long-running medical drama has made an impact on-screen with empowering storylines. More recently, Grey's has explored domestic violence with Camilla Luddington's Jo, unconscious bias and new stories for transgender characters. Grey's this season features a same-sex relationship with its first openly gay male surgeon (Alex Landi, whose Nico is romancing Jake Borelli's intern, Schmitt) as part of its "Season of Love." The latter is especially true for Pompeo's Meredith, who is now exploring serious relationships after losing her "person" when Dempsey's Derek was shockingly killed off back in season 11.

"The most empowering storyline for me has been to portray a woman who has lost the love of their life and what does life look like having to continue on after losing the right side of your body? Did his departure mean I no longer mattered or my magic and chemistry was somehow gone? We saw that I could stand on my own and that women who do lose their partners or children, there is a way for people to go on. To be able to portray someone who could go through the hardest thing you could go through — the death of a loved one — and to be able to portray the survival of that is the most meaningful," a tearful Pompeo says, comparing Meredith's loss to the passing of her own mother at a young age. "After that, you think you can't go on. … So it's all come full circle."

Other cast members point to medical storylines that have helped viewers diagnose loved ones. Wilson is especially proud of the cyclic vomiting syndrome episode, while Chambers singles out exploring mental illness with Alex's mother in a storyline first planted in the show's early days. But all involved can point to several subjects the series has explored that have helped open minds and let viewers see versions of themselves on TV.

"Callie and Arizona's wedding was a really big deal and you think of the different countries that the episode was broadcast in and they may not have thought they were ready for big things like that," Williams says. "Whether it was the transgender young woman I just met who felt like she was included because she saw a trans patient whose storyline wasn't focused on her trans-ness, or the police violence episode — which is close to the work that I do — the running theme is allowing people to feel seen and considered."

And sometimes the impact Grey's is making is subtler than a storyline or patient.

"I've had black women say that I'm the reason they decided to go natural with their hair," says Kelly McCreary, who has played Meredith's half-sister, Maggie, since the end of season 10. "If seeing me on screen representing our hair in its natural state freed viewers from any ideas they had about that being bad, unattractive or unprofessional or whatever else they're trying to feed us about it, that's remarkable."

Doing Something New (That Still Feels Familiar) Everyone on the Grey's call sheet will give credit for the show's creative and ratings resurgence to Vernoff, who as Chambers says, "hit a refresh button and reinvigorated the show." Kim Raver, who reprises her role as Teddy after previously serving as a series regular for seasons six through eight, feels the same old-school energy now that she did a decade ago and credits Vernoff for "infusing the quintessential Shonda Rhimes vibe of it." And while Vernoff smiles when told of the cast's kind words for her work, she is aware of the power that comes with writing for a beloved character like Pompeo's Meredith Grey.

"When Meredith Grey speaks, people listen," says Vernoff, who recently signed a big overall deal with ABC Studios. "There is so much darkness and so much to be frightened of and this show has so much impact. People have grown up with Meredith. So, my goal is to have a voice on the planet and to have an impact: to change hearts and minds."  

Vernoff is aware that she is already achieving that impact. The showrunner — who has been outspoken about timely issues surrounding Hollywood including the #MeToo movement, salary parity and more — recalled a recent conversation with Rhimes in which the Grey's creator shared a story from a makeup artist who noted that his brother is a Korean gay man and was moved to see himself represented on screen. Other highlights include hearing from a current Grey's writers PA who wrote a letter sharing a story about experiencing his father's death at the age of 16 and finding solace in a storyline with George (T.R. Knight) and Cristina talking about the "Dead Dad's Club."

"To put my painful loss on TV and help other people through that is deeply meaningful to me," Vernoff says of the origin of that storyline.

As for what comes next, Vernoff did not want to write in a wink and nod to ER — fitting given her relationship with Wells on Shameless and the fact that the former NBC medical drama was one of the series that made her want to be a TV writer in the first place. Instead, Vernoff opted to do something that Grey's had never done before.

"In the 300th episode we did a huge number of winks at the show's history and beginnings. I don't know if ERdid it or not but what I came up with was a no-medicine episode," Vernoff says of the Grey's first. Adds McCreary: "We're in this party scene and I keep waiting for somebody to need a tracheotomy! But instead it's great because it feels like a real celebration of these characters."

Meaningful Milestone As the episode doubles as a celebration of sorts of the record-breaking milestone, the stars all share the same refrain when asked about the significance of doing a whopping 332 hours of television. All involved recall their initial shock that the series few thought would work has become the powerhouse franchise it is today.

"My goal was to do the pilot, take the check and pay some bills!" Wilson recalls with a laugh. Adds Chambers: "When we were in season two, I'd say to everybody, 'Do you think we've got two more years? I just wanted to get my kids to college.' And now some of them are done with it!" Pompeo also points to the record's value in the current TV landscape where viewers have an option to pick from nearly 500 scripted series and 700-plus unscripted offerings on an array of platforms as competition for eyeballs expands to other forms of entertainment like video games and podcasts.

"The fact that we're still the network's No. 1 drama and can stay afloat in this landscape after 15 years is incredible," Pompeo says. "It's also incredible in a larger sense because it's something that I resisted [and] that I said I would never do."

For his part, Williams has now appeared in more than two-thirds of Grey's Anatomy's total episodes after first joining the cast as recurring player Jackson Avery in season six. It's a jarring fact for the actor who initially thought the show would only be around for only a few more seasons when he first signed on. He now scoffs at those who use Grey's Anatomy as a punchline.

"That response — 'Oh, Grey's is still on' — at first, I took offense to it but now I don't because it's not really about our show; it's about the business because shows don't last that long," says Williams, whose tech companies are all inspired by the message of visibility he sees every day on Grey's. "I'm really proud of what we do here — I wouldn't be here this long if I wasn't."

The Future While Grey's has not officially been renewed for its 16th season, it's considered a lock as Pompeo's deal covers the 2019-2020 broadcast season. ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke and ABC Studios topper Patrick Moran both bow before what Pompeo and Grey's have been able to accomplish. "We are awed by this rare and incredible achievement," Moran says. "To make 15 seasons of television that are creatively fresh and compelling — and now record breaking — is almost unheard of, but Shonda, Betsy Beers, Krista, Ellen and the incredible cast and crew have managed to do that. We're very proud of this show and this team." Adds Burke: "How fitting and well deserved it is for Grey's Anatomy — a show that never ceases to inspire, surprise and move us — to achieve something no other primetime medical drama can lay claim to. The creative bar set by Shonda, Betsy, Krista, Ellen and the entire cast and crew will keep this iconic show in rarefied air for generations, and as one of their millions of fans, I congratulate them on this historic milestone."

Pompeo, too, knows she has experienced something special in her decade and a half on Grey's, where she has been afforded a rare ability to evolve Meredith as a character while growing as an actor and producer. "I've come full circle on this show from being an actor with no voice, no say and terrified to speak up or advocate for myself in any way," Pompeo says. "I'm now someone who is heard here and who has a say here. I'm one of my bosses and that's an unusual situation for an actress in Hollywood — to get to say what I want and what I don't. If I left the show, I don't think I'd have that same situation anywhere."

That's not to say Pompeo hasn't toyed with the idea of leaving Grey's over the years. The actress has been candid many times about experiencing the nagging pull many stars on veteran series experience as they consider leaving and taking on new and different roles. But at the end of the day, the idea of stepping away from something as big as what Grey's Anatomy has become has proven impossible.

"You can't ignore the worldwide phenomenon that this show is. How do you walk away or ignore that?" Pompeo says. "Being the face and voice of something that can generate that much money, there's only a very small number of people who can say that they have achieved that. If you're lucky enough to be the face and voice of something that's generated billions of dollars for a network, that's something to be proud of."

Meanwhile, Pickens is in talks for a new deal that would see him continue on as Grey's Anatomy's elder statesman Richard Webber. ("Nothing is solid yet but more than likely, I'll be here," he says.) Pickens adds the thought of going after Gunsmoke or Law & Order: SVU — the latter of which will break the former's record as TV's longest-running primetime drama series when it is renewed for its 21st season — remains "intriguing." Wilson, for her part, has one goal in mind now that Grey's has snapped ER's streak. "I would love to be a starter and a finisher of a thing," says the original star, whose contract is also up this season. "When the show is ready for that last shot, I want to be in that."

Seeing Ghosts Of the many notable cast departures, Vernoff, Pompeo and the cast all have quick answers at the ready when asked about which former Grey's co-stars they'd like to bring back to Prospect Studios:

Pompeo (Meredith): "I would love for Sandra Oh to be on the show but not more than I love seeing Sandra Oh out there in the world doing her thing. Not more than I love seeing her shine on her own at the Golden Globes and on Killing Eve. So I would say no [to that]. I love everybody who has been on this show, regardless of their time here and whether it was tumultuous or not."

Chambers (Alex): "Richard Herrmann. He played my intern for a while and was such a joy to work with. He passed on but I felt very lucky to work with him."

Wilson (Bailey): "Bailey was crazy about George O'Malley. But the thing about our show is we always keep our past characters alive; there is nobody we don't ever not talk about because every one of those characters has been the foundation for why we're here."

Pickens (Richard): "I've been in this business almost 40 years and Sandra Oh brought something very special to every scene."

McKidd (Owen): "Sandra Oh's Cristina, especially the way things are right now with Amelia, Teddy and Owen. To throw her into the mix at the same time? Owen would literally keel over and never get up again."

Raver (Teddy): "Sandra Oh. I started off having crazy, intense scenes with her — like when Henry (Scott Foley) was dying and I love her as a friend and admire her as an actress."

Williams (Jackson): "Frances Conroy. She was here in season seven and I didn't get to work with her. She is tremendous and was on one of my favorite shows ever: Six Feet Under."

Luddington (Jo): "Kyle Chandler. I love Friday Night Lights."

Scorsone (Amelia): "Chyler Leigh (Lexie). She is so much fun and is great with drama and comedy. I'm sad that I didn't get to work with her more."

McCreary (Maggie): "Kate Burton. I'd love for Maggie and Ellis to interact. Kate and I did a play together in 2014. She's one of my favorite people."

Gianniotti (DeLuca): "Jessica Capshaw. We would laugh until snot was coming out of our noses. I miss having her around."

Allen (Katherine): "I had so much fun directing Patrick Dempsey when he was here. I nicknamed him Dash because he would come on the set, look at his watch and want to keep it moving. He never liked to do a lot of takes but was always great. I didn't get to act with him but I did some of his best scenes while I was here. We think of him fondly."

Vernoff (showrunner): "Sandra Oh. I miss writing for Sandra and Cristina."

[gabriellademonaco]

Crown Princess Mary’s Official Engagements in November 2018:

04/11: Hubertus Hunt

06/11: Visit to Italy - Lunch with President Sergio Mattarella, Terme Di Caracalla

06/11: Visit to Italy - Welcome Reception

07/11: Visit to Italy - Official Opening, Seminars, Lunch, Panel Debate, Gastro Event

07/11: Visit to Italy - Official Dinner

08/11: Visit to Italy - Audience with Pope Francis

08/11: Visit to Italy - Bambino Gesù Hospital

12/11: #Childmothers Photo Exhibition & State of World Population Report

13/11: Royal Hunt in Fredensborg

14/11: The Prince of Wales’ 70th Birthday Reception

20/11: Danish Speaker‘s Award 

20/11: Children’s Day at UNICEF Denmark

24/11: Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg

24/11: Crown Prince Couple’s Awards

27/11: Visit to Kenya - Kalama Conservancy, Northern Rangelands Trust

28/11: Visit to Kenya - Deliver for Good Campaign, Kibera Slum

[ravishingtheroyals]

Get To Know Me Meme [Royalist Edition] ♔

[5/15] Royals in General

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (Catherine Elizabeth "Kate"; née Middleton; born January 9th, 1982) is a member of the British royal family, fashion icon, and patron of sports, arts, and children's organizations. Her husband, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, is second in line to become king of the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth realms, making Catherine a likely future queen consort.

In 2001, Middleton met Prince William while they were both students in residence at St Salvator's Hall at the University of St Andrews. The couple began dating in 2003, although their relationship remained unconfirmed. In April 2007, Prince William and Middleton split up. The couple decided to break up during a holiday in the Swiss resort of Zermatt. Newspapers speculated about the reasons for the split, although these reports relied on anonymous sources. Middleton and her family attended the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium, where she and Prince William sat two rows apart. The couple were subsequently seen together in public on a number of occasions and news sources stated that they had "rekindled their relationship". Prince William and Catherine Middleton became engaged in October 2010, in Kenya, during a 10-day trip to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Clarence House announced the engagement on November 16th, 2010. Prince William gave Middleton the engagement ring that had belonged to his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

On 3 December 2012, St James's Palace announced that the Duchess was pregnant with her first child. The announcement was made earlier in the pregnancy than is usual as she had been admitted to King Edward VII's Hospital suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum, a severe form of morning sickness. The Duchess was admitted to St Mary's Hospital in London in the early stages of labour on the morning of July 22, 2013 and gave birth to Prince George later that day. The Duchess's second pregnancy was announced on September 8, 2014. As with her first pregnancy, the Duchess suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum and was required to cancel official engagements. On May 2, 2015, the Duchess gave birth to Princess Charlotte. The Duchess's third pregnancy was announced on September 4th, 2017. She was again forced to cancel engagements due to hyperemesis gravidarum. The child is due in April 2018. (x)

[touritesafaris]

Growth of African Tourism as Industry Remains Resilient

The festive season in Africa also marks the highest season in the tourism industry, as demand for getaway destinations in the continent surges. According to a Hospitality Report Africa – 2018/19, IATA’s most popular airline destinations in Africa in terms of traffic are South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria, Tunisia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mauritius and Tanzania respectively. These being just…

[newscheckz]

KMPDC living up to its mantra of ensuring quality healthcare for Kenyans  

New Post has been published on https://newscheckz.com/kmpdc-living-up-to-its-mantra-of-ensuring-quality-healthcare-for-kenyans/

KMPDC living up to its mantra of ensuring quality healthcare for Kenyans  

Established under the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Act (Chapter 253 Laws of Kenya), the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC), is mandated to regulate the training and practice of medicine, dentistry and community oral health, as well as regulate all health facilities within the Republic of Kenya.

KMPDC HEADQUARTER

The Council also serves as an advisory to the National and County Governments and the Ministry of Health.

As a health regulator, KMPDC has been working tirelessly to ensure the health services Kenyans get are top notch.

Among the things the Council continues to work on are amendments to the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Act (Cap 253 Laws of Kenya). The last amendments came into effect on the 17th of May, 2019.

KMPDC CEO and Chair

take Deans of Medical and Dental Schools in Kenya through the EAC inspection checklist during a pre-inspection briefing on the 3rd Joint EAC Inspection, ahead of the exercise that is expected to take place in Kenya between 1st and 7th March, 2020.

According to KMPDC’s Chief Executive Officer Daniel Yumbya, the amendments have not only given the Council more regulatory and enforcement powers but have also ensured patients’ safety through the introduction of a Professional Indemnity Cover (PIC).

“Something that is also commendable in the Act is that health facilities and practitioners have now been compelled by law to have a Professional Indemnity Cover (PIC) before they renew their yearly licenses,” said Mr. Yumbya. “This cover ensures that in case a practitioner or health facility is found culpable of a malpractice and are asked to pay the complainant for damages, it is covered, and the complainant will be paid without issue.”

Quacks menace

Other than that, the amendments to the Act have taken into consideration the quacks menace in Kenya and in an effort to protect patients, stiffer penalties for anyone masquerading as a doctor, have been introduced.

The penalties set for such persons is a fine not exceeding five million shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to both.

Health facilities have not been left behind. The Act stipulates that persons in charge of health facilities who hire unlicensed practitioners or quacks or operate health facilities that have not been licensed or registered commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding ten million shillings or imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to both.

The Council has gone a step further and updated a register of all licensed practitioners and health facilities on its website www.kmpdc.go.ke to protect unsuspecting Kenyans and ensure patients know if the person treating them is indeed a doctor and if a health facility is licensed to operate.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC), Chief Executive Officer Daniel Yumbya explaining how the council is fighting and putting up tough measure to curb medical malpractices in the health sector countrywide

“Our job is to ensure Kenyans get quality healthcare as we strive to protect patients from fraudulent people. That is why we saw it necessary to share the list of licensed practitioners and health facilities and make them easily available for the public should they need to ascertain the credentials of the person treating them. I encourage Kenyans to be on the lookout for quacks because not everyone calling themselves “doctor” is one,” said Mr. Yumbya.

As a precaution, Mr. yumbya affirms that; “The register furnishes members of the public with a list of all practitioners licensed by the Council to operate within any given year. If one is claiming to be a doctor but their name is not on our register, then you know that they’re either a quack or have not been licensed to operate.

The same applies to health facilities. We encourage members of the public to report to us should they suspect one is either operating without a license as this is illegal, or if one is a quack.”

Lodging a complaint against a doctor or health facility

Another mandate of KMPDC is disciplinary proceedings. Patients can lodge a complaint against a health facility or a doctor, should they feel that they did not receive quality healthcare.

The ongoing Joint PIC Meeting between KMPDB,COC and NCK into the matter of alleged negligence at Kenyatta National Hospital, 15th March 2018

The Council, through the Disciplinary and Ethics Committee (DEC) then conducts inquiries on professional misconduct, medical/dental malpractice, overcharging, patient mismanagement, patient abandonment among others.

Mr. Yumbya says that the Council has cumulatively received a total of 1,257 complaints, since the first case was reported to KMPDC in 1997.  About 1,132 cases have been concluded while only a paltry 125 cases are under investigation.

“Once the Council’s Legal Department receives a complaint from a patient, a patient’s relative or caregiver, the Office of the Ombudsman or even the media, the complaint is shared with the practitioner or health institution being accused, to give them a chance to respond to the allegations. The complaint and the response are then tabled before the Disciplinary and Ethics Committee (DEC) for discussion in their next scheduled meeting,” said Mr. Yumbya.

The Council has moved a step further and made it easier for a complainant to lodge a complaint.

One can now easily download the complaint form from the Council’s website www.kmpdc.go.ke on the “PUBLIC” tab, which also explains the procedure of lodging such complaints.

Once the form is filled, the same can be sent to the Council together with documents indicated in the complaint form to the email, legal@kmpdc.go.ke.

The Council’s Disciplinary and Ethics Committee also has other roles like: conducting Inquiries into complaints submitted to it, regulating professional conduct, ensuring fitness to practice and operate, promoting mediation and arbitration between parties and at its own liberty, recording and adopting mediation agreements or compromise between parties, on the terms agreed among others.

Fight against the Covid-19 pandemic

The Council has also played a very critical role in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. In its regulatory and advisory capacity, through the Ministry of Health, KMPDC was mobilised to assist in national coordination, compilation of action and implementation plans to curb the deadly virus as the government continued to review and implement more measures to curtail the pandemic nationally. This saw the council put in charge of quarantine and isolation facilities in the country.

  “Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Health, Sen. Mutahi Kagwe, constituted a national team of experts under the leadership of our Chairperson Dr. Eva Njenga in July 2020, to provide technical assistance to all 47 counties with a view to enhance the county governments’ pandemic preparedness and response mechanisms. I was the Secretariat Head,” said Mr. Yumbya further adding that KMPDC played a key role in supporting the COVID National Task force and providing vital technical information to inform the government on COVID-19 response strategies.

In collaboration with the County Health Management Teams, the technical experts’ team conducted a countrywide exercise of health facilities in each county, to establish the counties’ capacities to effectively manage the coronavirus cases when presented,” Mr. yumbya reveals.

The team also trained health workers on referral system to health facilities when the need arises, criteria for determining recovery and discharge of patients.

The crew also disseminated and supported the roll out of Home-Based Isolation and Care guidelines to provide an alternative solution in the management of the increasing numbers of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients which will serve to decongest health facilities in the country.

“Our role in COVID-19 mitigation measures cannot be gainsaid. As the regulator in medical and dental practice, KMPDC continues to live up to its mantra, stepping up activities in a bid to guarantee delivery of quality health services in the country despite the pandemic,” he adds.

As we all remember, on the 22nd of March 2020, the Cabinet Secretary of Health issued a directive that abolished self-quarantine and in turn instituted mandatory quarantine for all individuals returning to the country.

This directive came into effect on the same day wherein over 2000 people underwent mandatory preventive quarantine for a duration of fourteen (14) days at several identified quarantine facilities.

Cognisant of this, the Kenyan Government set up the National Coordination Centre for Quarantine and Isolation Facilities domiciled at the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentist Council.

This coordination centre was tasked with the specific mandate to coordinate the management of COVID-19 quarantine and isolation centres within Nairobi Metropolitan and beyond.

Following the lock-down and curfew that was put in place by the government, the Council also designed special passes for essential services providers (including doctors) to ensure they deliver services without interruption.

 The pandemic gains

When the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Kenya, the number of people going to health facilities to seek treatment dropped as Kenyans shunned hospitals due to fears of contracting the virus from the said institutions.

This made the Council to move swiftly to respond to this growing concern by looking into ways of ensuring patients still got quality healthcare from their healthcare providers despite the prevailing circumstances.

“We therefore commenced the issuance of provisional approvals for various registered and licensed health institutions to offer virtual medical services. The Council issued approvals to about 20 hospitals to offer telemedicine services in the country by then,” said Mr. Yumbya. “This year, we have increased the scope to give annual licenses to registered and licensed health facilities that want to offer virtual health services.”

The move by the Council to approve the facilities to offer telemedicine is a response to a growing need for the services due to physical distancing rules imposed by the government to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Even before the pandemic hit the country, KMPDC had already developed e-Health guidelines back in 2019, and shared the same with the relevant government authorities for approval and subsequent gazettement. The rules will offer a base for the full roll out of telemedicine services in Kenya.

“The Council works tirelessly to ensure that we are an an efficient, effective and accessible world class health regulatory body. In our efforts to learn best practices and promote the provision of quality healthcare in the country, we are part of international, continental and regional bodies that help promote the above-mentioned practices in the regulation of healthcare,” says the KMPDC CEO.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC), Chief Executive Officer Daniel Yumbya smiles during a photo session.

“These include the International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities, the Association of Medical Councils of Africa, the East African Communities Medical and Dental Boards/Councils among others. These associations offer support to regulatory authorities, including KMPDC by promoting high standards of medical education, registration and regulation, through scientific, educational, and collaborative activities.” Mr. Yumbya concludes.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 9.13

585 BC – Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, king of Rome, celebrates a triumph for his victories over the Sabines, and the surrender of Collatia. 509 BC – The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Rome's Capitoline Hill is dedicated on the ides of September. 379 – Yax Nuun Ahiin I is crowned as 15th Ajaw of Tikal 533 – Belisarius of the Byzantine Empire defeats Gelimer and the Vandals at the Battle of Ad Decimum, near Carthage, North Africa. 1229 – Ögedei Khan is proclaimed Khagan of the Mongol Empire in Kodoe Aral, Khentii: Mongolia. 1437 – Battle of Tangier: a Portuguese expeditionary force initiates a failed attempt to seize the Moroccan citadel of Tangier. 1501 – Italian Renaissance: Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David. 1504 – Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand issue a Royal Warrant for the construction of a Royal Chapel (Capilla Real) to be built. 1541 – After three years of exile, John Calvin returns to Geneva to reform the church under a body of doctrine known as Calvinism. 1584 – San Lorenzo del Escorial Palace in Madrid is finished. 1609 – Henry Hudson reaches the river that would later be named after him – the Hudson River. 1645 – Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Scottish Royalists are defeated by Covenanters at the Battle of Philiphaugh. 1743 – Great Britain, Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia sign the Treaty of Worms. 1759 – Battle of the Plains of Abraham: the British defeat the French near Quebec City in the Seven Years' War, known in the United States as the French and Indian War. 1782 – American Revolutionary War: Franco-Spanish troops launch the unsuccessful "grand assault" during the Great Siege of Gibraltar. 1788 – The Philadelphia Convention sets the date for the first presidential election in the United States, and New York City becomes the country's temporary capital. 1791 – King Louis XVI of France accepts the new constitution. 1808 – Finnish War: In the Battle of Jutas, Swedish forces under Lieutenant General Georg Carl von Döbeln beat the Russians, making von Döbeln a Swedish war hero. 1812 – War of 1812: A supply wagon sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack at the Narrows. 1814 – In a turning point in the War of 1812, the British fail to capture Baltimore. During the battle, Francis Scott Key composes his poem "Defence of Fort McHenry", which is later set to music and becomes the United States' national anthem. 1843 – The Greek Army rebels (OS date: September 3) against the autocratic rule of king Otto of Greece, demanding the granting of a constitution. 1847 – Mexican–American War: Six teenage military cadets known as Niños Héroes die defending Chapultepec Castle in the Battle of Chapultepec. American troops under General Winfield Scott capture Mexico City in the Mexican–American War. 1848 – Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage survives an iron rod 1 1⁄4 inches (3.2 cm) in diameter being driven through his brain; the reported effects on his behavior and personality stimulate discussion of the nature of the brain and its functions. 1862 – American Civil War: Union soldiers find a copy of Robert E. Lee's battle plans in a field outside Frederick, Maryland. It is the prelude to the Battle of Antietam. 1882 – Anglo-Egyptian War: The Battle of Tel el-Kebir is fought. 1898 – Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film. 1899 – Henry Bliss is the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident. 1899 – Mackinder, Ollier and Brocherel make the first ascent of Batian (5,199 m – 17,058 ft), the highest peak of Mount Kenya. 1900 – Filipino insurgents defeat a small American column in the Battle of Pulang Lupa, during the Philippine–American War. 1906 – The Santos-Dumont 14-bis makes a short hop, the first flight of a fixed-wing aircraft in Europe. 1914 – World War I: The Battle of Aisne begins between Germany and France. 1922 – The final act of the Greco-Turkish War, the Great Fire of Smyrna, commences. 1923 – Following a military coup in Spain, Miguel Primo de Rivera takes over, setting up a dictatorship. 1933 – Elizabeth McCombs becomes the first woman elected to the New Zealand Parliament. 1942 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge in the Guadalcanal Campaign. U.S. Marines successfully defeated attacks by the Japanese with heavy losses for the Japanese forces. 1944 – World War II: Start of the Battle of Meligalas between the Greek Resistance forces of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) and the collaborationist security battalions. 1948 – Deputy Prime Minister of India Vallabhbhai Patel orders the Army to move into Hyderabad to integrate it with the Indian Union. 1948 – Margaret Chase Smith is elected United States senator, and becomes the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate. 1953 – Nikita Khrushchev is appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 1956 – The IBM 305 RAMAC is introduced, the first commercial computer to use disk storage. 1956 – The dike around the Dutch polder East Flevoland is closed. 1962 – An appeals court orders the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith, the first African-American student admitted to the segregated university. 1964 – South Vietnamese Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Dương Văn Đức fail in a coup attempt against General Nguyễn Khánh. 1964 – Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd of 20,000 West Berliners on Sunday, in Waldbühne. 1968 – Cold War: Albania leaves the Warsaw Pact. 1971 – State police and National Guardsmen storm New York's Attica Prison to quell a prison revolt, which claimed 43 lives. 1971 – Chairman Mao Zedong's second in command and successor Marshal Lin Biao flees China after the failure of an alleged coup. His plane crashes in Mongolia, killing all aboard. 1977 – General Motors introduces Diesel engine, with Oldsmobile Diesel engine, in the Delta 88, Oldsmobile 98, and Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser models amongst others. 1979 – South Africa grants independence to the "homeland" of Venda (not recognised outside South Africa). 1985 – Super Mario Bros. is released in Japan for the NES, which starts the Super Mario series of platforming games. 1987 – Goiânia accident: A radioactive object is stolen from an abandoned hospital in Goiânia, Brazil, contaminating many people in the following weeks and causing some to die from radiation poisoning. 1988 – Hurricane Gilbert is the strongest recorded hurricane in the Western Hemisphere, later replaced by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 (based on barometric pressure). 1989 – Largest anti-Apartheid march in South Africa, led by Desmond Tutu. 1993 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shakes hands with Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat at the White House after signing the Oslo Accords granting limited Palestinian autonomy. 2001 – Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the United States after the September 11 attacks. 2007 – The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. 2008 – Delhi, India, is hit by a series of bomb blasts, resulting in 30 deaths and 130 injuries. 2008 – Hurricane Ike makes landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast of the United States, causing heavy damage to Galveston Island, Houston, and surrounding areas. 2013 – Taliban insurgents attack the United States consulate in Herat, Afghanistan, with two members of the Afghan National Police reported dead and about 20 civilians injured. 2018 – The Merrimack Valley gas explosions: One person is killed, 25 are injured, and 40 homes are destroyed when excessive natural gas pressure caused fires and explosions.

[newstfionline]

Headlines

US unemployment spikes to a Depression-era level of 14.7% (AP) The U.S. unemployment rate rocketed to 14.7% in April, a level last seen during the Great Depression, as 20.5 million jobs vanished in the worst monthly loss on record—stark evidence of how the coronavirus has brought the economy to its knees. The breathtaking losses, reported by the Labor Department on Friday, are certain to intensify the push-pull over how and when to ease the coast-to-coast shutdowns of factories, stores, offices and other businesses. “The damage that we’re seeing from the great coronavirus recession is traumatic,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. “It’s going to take a long time before the labor market recovers to its pre-recession state.”

Trouble for the sharing economy (NYT) The coronavirus pandemic has gutted the so-called sharing economy. Its most valuable companies, which started the year by promising that they would soon become profitable, now say consumer demand has all but vanished. In earnings reports this week, Uber and Lyft disclosed the depth of the financial damage. The companies said their ride-hailing businesses all but collapsed in March, the last month of the first quarter, as shelter-in-place orders spread through Europe and the United States. The red ink extends beyond ride hailing. The home-sharing company Airbnb, which investors valued at $31 billion, had planned to go public this year. Instead, the company has slashed costs and raised emergency funding, and on Tuesday it laid off 1,900 employees, about 25 percent of its staff. It also reduced its revenue forecast for this year to half of what it brought in last year. The companies, founded on the notion that they should become as big as possible as quickly as possible and worry about making a profit somewhere down the line, now face an uncertain future. And their timelines for turning a profit appear—for now—to have been tossed aside.

The new federalism? (Foreign Policy) The shift in leadership from the White House to the governor’s state house has been one of the defining dynamics of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States to date, and a new poll underlines the shift. The Financial Times-Peterson Foundation poll found 71 percent of likely U.S. voters trust their state governor over the U.S. president to “make the right decision” on when to ease social distancing guidelines and reopen businesses.

Pentagon acknowledges civilian deaths in operations (Foreign Policy) The U.S. Defense Department released its annual civilian casualties report on Thursday, claiming 132 civilians were killed in the course of its global operations. The number is disputed by rights groups and other monitors, who claim the number is much higher.

America’s business of prisons thrives even amid a pandemic (AP) As factories and other businesses remain shuttered across America, people in prisons in at least 40 states continue going to work. Sometimes they earn pennies an hour, or nothing at all, making masks and hand sanitizer to help guard others from the coronavirus. Those same men and women have been cut off from family visits for weeks, but they get charged up to $25 for a 15-minute phone call—plus a surcharge every time they add credit. They also pay marked-up prices at the commissary for soap so they can wash their hands more frequently. As the COVID-19 virus cripples the economy, leaving millions unemployed and many companies on life support, big businesses that have become synonymous with the world’s largest prison system are still making money. When incarceration rates soared to record highs in the 1980s and ‘90s, some corporations saw a business opportunity. Prison and jail administrators started privatizing everything from food and commissary to entire operations of facilities.

Nice public housing for public servants (Reuters) Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador began his term in office at the end of 2018 by saying he would forgo the traditional presidential residence at Los Pinos and instead turn the palatial grounds and buildings into a public museum. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Los Pinos has a new incarnation as a living quarters for doctors and nurses treating patients at a nearby hospital. Meals, laundry and cleaning services are provided to the health care workers over the course of their stay, and a shuttle bus is provided to take them to work. “(The palace) is a space that was built for public servants and the nurses and doctors are public servants and they are risking their lives to save the lives of other people,” Zoe Robledo, Mexico’s Social Security Director, told Reuters.

More pedestrians, fewer cars? (Le Parisien) In France, where outdoor cafés and restaurants are typically crowded with tourists and locals alike sharing apéros and conversation, we may begin to see a gradual reopening this month of les terrasses, yet no formal plans have yet been made. But according to the Le Parisien daily, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo will be making some major changes to the city’s layout, for locals and commuters alike, that could include the closure of at least 30 roads from cars and traffic, including Rue Rivoli near the Louvre, and a few other tourist-heavy areas, to open up more through-ways for pedestrians and cyclists. As far as for restaurants, cafés and bars? The mayor is also making space for them in some major ways, such as letting them spill out into the street and parking spaces so that they can still serve while respecting sanitary conditions. According to Hidalgo, “Entire streets could be reserved for them free of charge.”

How The Pandemic Is Disrupting Democracies (Foreign Policy) As the pandemic expands toward summer, its worrisome effects on democracy are coming into focus. Hungary already failed a democratic test at the outset of the pandemic, enacting laws that stifle free speech and postpone any future elections—effectively keeping Prime Minister Viktor Orban in power indefinitely. This week, the democracy watchdog Freedom House demoted Hungary from a fully-fledged democracy to the level of “hybrid regime.” Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party came close to forcing through electoral rule changes that could have opened the door to ballot tampering. The move was only stopped at the last minute when the election it would have affected was postponed. Steven Feldstein, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, sees coronavirus-related pressures on democracies around the world. “Pandemic-fueled leadership wobbles are widespread but especially serious in Brazil, Indonesia, and the Philippines,” he writes. The worries don’t stop there: Bolivia, Lebanon, Kenya, and Nigeria are all faced with challenges that could decide their future democratic trajectory. “If democratic backsliding intensifies, then we can add another casualty to the terrible toll already inflicted by the coronavirus: the demise of democracies that were too fragile to withstand the authoritarian inclinations of their leaders,” Feldstein writes.

Amid pandemic, the world’s working poor hustle to survive (AP) From India to Argentina, untold millions who were already struggling to get by on the economic margins have had their lives made even harder by pandemic lockdowns, layoffs and the loss of a chance to earn from a hard day’s work. More than four out of five people in the global labor force of 3.3 billion have been hit by full or partial workplace closures, according to the International Labor Organization, which says 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy “stand in immediate danger of having their livelihoods destroyed.” The toll for families is hunger and poverty that are either newfound or even more grinding than before. Hunkering down at home to ride out the crisis isn’t an option for many, because securing the next meal means hustling to find a way to sell, clean, drive or otherwise work, despite the risk. How the world’s poor get through this pandemic will help determine how quickly the global economy recovers and how much aid is needed to keep countries afloat.

Russia’s coronavirus toll (Moscow Times)​ Russia confirmed 10,699 new coronavirus infections Friday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 187,859. Russia is now the fifth most-affected country in terms of infections, surpassing Germany and France on Thursday. The real number of coronavirus infections in Moscow is likely around 300,000, ​Mayor Sergei ​Sobyanin said​ Thursday.​ Officially, the city has 92,676 cases.​ ​Moscow’s coronavirus lockdown has been extended until May 31. Starting May 12, Moscow residents will be required to wear face masks and gloves in all public places and transport​. Hundreds of thousands of Moscow’s rapid antibody tests labeled as Dutch-made are unreliable at detecting the coronavirus in its early stages, meaning patients who receive false negatives could potentially infect others​.

Getting out from under the doona (Reuters) Australia laid out a three-step road map to ease social distancing restrictions, aiming to remove all curbs by July and get nearly one million people back to work. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it will be up to Australia’s various states and territories to decide when to begin implementing each stage. Each step will likely be separated by a four-week transition. “You can stay under the doona forever. You’ll never face any danger,” Morrison told reporters, using an Australian word for quilt. “But we’ve got to get out from under the doona at some time.”

[jesse-pinkman123]

Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (LCMS) Market Size Share Trends Forecast 2026

Global Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (LCMS) Market, by Type (Single Quadrupole LC-MS, Triple Quadrupole LC-MS, and Ion Trap LC-MS), by Sensitivity (High Flow, Micro Flow, and Nano Flow), by End User (Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industry, Hospital and Research Laboratories, and Academic and Research Institutes), and by Region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa) it is expected to be valued at US$ 3,683.7 million in 2019, and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 12.0% over the forecast period (2019 – 2027), as highlighted in a new report published by.

Increasing research and development expenditure in the healthcare sector and increasing product launches by market players are expected to drive the market growth Increasing product launches by market players, in order to offer advanced solutions for efficient analysis of samples in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, and other sectors is expected to drive the liquid chromatography mass spectrometry market growth. For instance, in June 2017, Thermo Fisher launched a fully automated analyzer, Cascadion SM clinical analyzer system with selectivity and sensitivity of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The fully automated analyzer can be customized easily to be compatible with the laboratory information systems. Moreover, initiatives taken by regulatory authorities regarding adoption of LCMS technique for testing and analysis in the biopharmaceutical industry is expected to drive growth of the LCMS market over the forecast period. For instance, in October 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended pharmaceutical companies to use Liquid Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (LC-HRMS) for testing N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in ranitidine products. The NDMA is found to be carcinogenic in nature.

* The sample copy includes: Report Summary, Table of Contents, Segmentation, Competitive Landscape, Report Structure, Methodology.

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Browse 28 Market Data Tables and 23 Figures spread through 186 Pages and in-depth TOC on ‘Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (LCMS) Market’- Global Forecast to 2027, by Type (Single Quadrupole LC-MS, Triple Quadrupole LC-MS, and Ion Trap LC-MS), by Sensitivity (High Flow, Micro Flow, and Nano Flow), by End User (Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industry, Hospital and Research Laboratories, and Academic and Research Institutes), and by Region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa)

Furthermore, key players and other organizations are focused on strategic collaborations to offer training programs for researchers, scientists, and other personnel, in order to boost drug discovery in emerging economies. For instance, in August, 2019, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Kenya held a training session for researchers from ten African countries for liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) training, to help analyze live molecules in food, medicine, and organic compounds. The training was co-funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and the Pan Africa Chemistry Network (PACN). The key players operating in the market are focused on adopting acquisition and collaboration strategies, in order to expand their product offerings in potential markets. For instance, in September 2019, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and Cedars-Sinai entered a collaboration for developing advanced liquid chromatography mass spectrometry workflows for screening and targeted quantitation of protein-based biomarkers for complicated diseases.

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Key Takeaways of the Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry Market:

The global liquid chromatography mass spectrometry market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 12.0% over the forecast period, owing to product launches by market players. For instance, in 2018, Shimadzu Corporation launched Nexera Mikros, a micro flowrate-compatible liquid chromatograph mass spectrometer which provides ten times higher sensitivity.

On the basis of sensitivity, the micro flow segment held a dominant position in the liquid chromatography mass spectrometry market in 2018, owing to its vast application in research which includes proteomics, biomarker discovery, bioanalysis, and environmental analysis, which is attributed to its higher sensitivity

Among end user, the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries segment held a dominant position in the liquid chromatography mass spectrometry market in 2018, owing to increasing innovations to accelerate drug development. For instance, in May 2018, SCIEX launched BioPharmaView Software 3.0 solution for complete LC-MS multiple attribute methodology (MAM) workflow, which enables detailed characterization of biologics for use by biopharma researchers.

Key players operating in the global liquid chromatography mass spectrometry market include Danaher Corporation, PerkinElmer, Inc., Waters Corporation, Bruker Corporation, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Agilent Technologies, Inc., Shimadzu Corporation, JEOL Ltd., and Newomics, Inc.

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[adventurekenya]

Jumia Travel Gives Insights into Kenya’s Hospitality Industry, 2018

Jumia Travel Gives Insights into Kenya’s Hospitality Industry, 2018

The Travel and Hospitality Sector in Kenya is essential for driving growth, providing foreign exchange, and creating employment to thousands of Kenyans. In 2017 the industry supported 1.1 million jobs (9% of total employment), and by end of 2018 the employment rate is expected to rise by 3.1%; and by 2.6% pa by 2028 to provide 1.5 million jobs (8.5% of total employment).

Jumia Travel, in its…