Anti-virus creator John McAfee has been found dead in a Barcelona prison cell hours after a Spanish court agreed to extradite him to the US to face tax evasion charges.
The Catalan justice department said medics had tried to resuscitate John McAfee, but were not successful.
It added that “everything indicates” John McAfee had taken his own life.
A controversial figure in the tech world, John McAfee’s company released the first commercial anti-virus software.
McAfee VirusScan helped to spark a multi-billion dollar industry in the computer world, and was eventually sold to technology giant Intel for more than $7.6 billion.
In October 2020, John McAfee was arrested in Spain when he was about to board a plane to Turkey, and accused of failing to file tax returns for four years, despite earning millions from consulting work, speaking engagements, crypto-currencies and selling the rights to his life story.
The US justice department alleged that McAfee evaded tax liability by having his income paid into bank accounts and cryptocurrency exchange accounts in the names of nominees.
John McAfee was also accused of concealing assets, including a yacht and real estate property, also in other people’s names.
Spain’s National Court authorized McAfee’s extradition to the US to face the charges on June 23.
In recent years, John McAfee had repeatedly claimed that there was a plot to get him – however the court said there was “no revealing evidence” that he was being prosecuted for political or ideological reasons, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported.
He had argued in a hearing earlier this month that the charges against him were politically motivated and that he would spend the rest of his life in prison if returned to the US.
Nishay Sanan, McAfee’s lawyer, said he had intended to fight all the charges.
The entrepreneur, who was born in Gloucestershire, England first came to prominence in the 1980s when he founded his tech company and released McAfee VirusScan.
He also launched unsuccessful bids to become the Libertarian Party’s candidate for the presidential elections in 2016 and 2020.
In 2019 McAfee expressed his disdain for taxes, tweeting that he had not filed tax returns for eight years because “taxation is illegal.”
In the same year John McAfee was briefly detained in the Dominican Republic for allegedly bringing weapons into the country.
Morgan Stanley’s staff and clients will be barred from entering the investment bank’s New York offices if they are not fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
According to a person familiar with the matter, unvaccinated employees will need to work remotely.
The policy comes into effect next month, in a move aimed to allow the lifting of other Covid-related rules.
Last week, the Wall Street giant’s chief executive called on workers to return to the office.
An internal memo said: “Starting July 12 all employees, contingent workforce, clients and visitors will be required to attest to being fully vaccinated to access Morgan Stanley buildings in New York City and Westchester.”
The move will allow the company to remove restrictions in offices on face coverings and social distancing.
The policy currently operates on an honor system, but the bank may later decide to require proof of vaccination status.
Morgan Stanley had already implemented so-called “vaccine-only” workspaces in some departments, including institutional securities and wealth management.
Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley chief executive James Gorman said: “If you can go into a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office.”
Speaking at a conference, James Gorman said he would be “very disappointed” if US-based workers had not returned by September.
It came as a number of banks are taking a tough position on home-working.
Jamie Dimon, the boss of America’s biggest bank JP Morgan, recently said he wanted US staff back in the office from July.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs bankers were instructed to report their vaccine status ahead of returning to their desks earlier this month.
In December, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency, gave the go-ahead for companies to bar unvaccinated staff from workplaces, subject to exceptions for religious and medical reasons.
Barclays’ chief executive Jes Staley, said in February that working from home was “not sustainable”. At a virtual meeting of the World Economic Forum, he said: “It will increasingly be a challenge to maintain the culture and collaboration that these large financial institutions seek to have and should have.”
With 2020 now over, people are ready to put the isolation factors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic behind them. For many, the first order of business is travel! Currently, the demand for travel in the U.S. is high. However, the industry has changed since the 2020 interim year of lockdown and this in turn is influencing traveler habits. Here’s what we can expect to see.
Travel is Booming
Once vaccination options were announced, people immediately began to think about summer travel. During the first week of March 2021, Airbnb and VRBO saw a surge in bookings that even exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Other travel companies, such as airlines, hotels and online travel platforms, were also the busiest they’d been since before the pandemic.
This trend hasn’t stopped, and industry experts are projecting summer travel could thrive. A Tripadvisor survey in April found more than half of Americans planned to travel, but 97% planned domestic travel. Travel agencies report that business is shaping up to exceed expectations. Rising airline prices, typical annual gas increases, and even difficulty securing rental cars (at higher than normal prices) are additional signs of increased travel.
Accommodation Preferences
For the most part, hotels are projected to make a big comeback as travelers become more comfortable and ready to explore beyond their backyards, but vacation rentals are still the accommodation of choice due to people preferring to avoid crowds and shared spaces. People have generally gotten used to enjoying certain aspects of social distancing and this may not change as things get back to normal.
Families especially like to avoid the cramped conditions of a hotel room, where the kids have to be taken everywhere to eat and to be entertained. They have long found that rental accommodations with their own kitchens and a washer/dryer, and loaded with in-house entertainments and attractions are the way to keep the whole family happy and actually let Mom get some rest. Others are catching on to this, and Gatlinburg cabins are booming this year, as nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park, already America’s most visited national park, sees record-breaking numbers of visitors.
New Travel Trends
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the way people live and this is undoubtedly overlapping with their travel preferences. Workcations have now become a thing, as many employers embrace work from home – having learned during the pandemic that productivity didn’t drop just because people were out of the office. As a result, up to 80% of employers plan to allow remote work at least part of the time.
Workers have grasped the options for workcation travel, such as working for an extended period of time at a beachfront rental, or spending a week or two in a cabin by a mountainside lake, or even moving to another city and exploring how the locals live for a month or two. The possibilities are endless as people discover new ways to tick off their bucket-list places without using up valuable vacation time.
Pod Travel happens when people plan secluded trips with others they trust, to minimize risks associated with group travel. Travel pods are groups consisting of two or more unrelated households, multigenerational groups, extended families, solo travelers, and friend groups.
The idea is that everyone agrees to specific health protocols before and during the trip, even including a rapid test before meeting up to assure self and others of a clean bill of health. On the trip, participants stay contained within their pod to reduce exposure to other travelers. Travelers going pod-style often rent large homes, or charter boats, reserve small hotels, arrange tours designed for large private groups, or go camping.
Staying near family has renewed interest from people largely separated from their loved ones during the pandemic. Family visits are increasingly popular and the next few years will likely be spent catching up with family. Travelers are likely to stay with family or reserve a nearby rental home where they can socialize more privately. Multi-generational living has already been on the rise in America, and the same may be true for vacationing.
Health and Budget-Conscious
Going forward, travelers are likely to be more focused on safety and budget. Increased vigilance about health protocols and being budget-minded are likely to be dominating factors for travel planning even after this initial travel rush (aka revenge travel) is over.
The COVID-19 pandemic was an eye-opener and people will be more conscious of sanitary practices and promoting good health. Consumers are also less likely to take anything for granted – a travel opportunity today may not be there tomorrow, as the pandemic showed us. On the other hand, many have noticed how much money they didn’t spend in 2020 and are likely to be less impulsive and, instead, be driven by price.
Consumer Expectations
Consumer expectations are also evolving, and the industry is changing to suit. Companies associated with travel have been making goodwill gestures to try and lure people back. Hotel chains charging resort and parking fees are now lifting them, while airlines are offering more promotions and easier ticket changes.
Cleanliness is now a high value: accommodations, rental cars and airlines are promoting deep cleaning protocols. Businesses are discouraging people from traveling while sick. And the industry as a whole is offering more flexible refund policies and better customer service across the board.
From the traveler’s point of view, touchless and digital experiences enhance just about any aspect of travel, because people like the ease and control they have from their phones. The pandemic brought to the fore many desires for improvement that travelers had long held. Now, as the travel industry embraces its returning wave of travelers, we could see many improvements that make the nuts and bolts of travel easier and more fun.
China has intensified its clampdown on cryptocurrencies, telling banks and payments platforms to stop supporting digital currency transactions.
That follows an order on June 18 to shut down Bitcoin mining operations in Sichuan province.
The price of Bitcoin slumped by more 10% on June 21 but stabilized in Asian trading on June 22.
The value of the cryptocurrency has fallen by around 50% since hitting a record high above $63,000 in April.
On June 21, China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), said it had recently summoned several major banks and payments companies to call on them to take tougher action over the trading of cryptocurrencies.
In a statement, the PBOC asked banks not provide products or services such as trading, clearing and settlement for cryptocurrency transactions.
China’s third-largest lender by assets, the Agricultural Bank of China, said it was following the PBOC’s guidance and would conduct due diligence on clients to root out illegal activities involving cryptocurrency mining and transactions.
China’s Postal Savings Bank also said it would not facilitate any cryptocurrency transactions.
Mobile and online payments platform Alipay, which is owned by financial technology giant Ant Group, said it would set up a monitoring system to detect illegal cryptocurrency transactions.
The latest measure came after authorities in the southwest province of Sichuan on June 18 ordered Bitcoin mining operations to close down.
In 2020, China accounted for around 65% of global Bitcoin production, with Sichuan rating as its second largest producer, according to research by the University of Cambridge.
Last month, China’s cabinet, the State Council, said it would crack down on cryptocurrency mining and trading as part of a campaign to control financial risks.
Some analysts have warned of potential further falls in the price of Bitcoin due to a price chart phenomenon known as a “death cross”, which occurs when a short-term average trendline crosses below a long-term average trendline.
Other cryptocurrencies also fell as investors worried about tougher regulation of digital currencies around the world.
Separately, the auction house Sotheby’s said that a rare pear-shaped diamond that is expected to sell for as much as $15 million can be bought at an auction next month using cryptocurrencies.
It is the first time that such a large diamond has been offered in a public sale with cryptocurrency.
Ebrahim Raisi has won Iran’s presidential election, following a race that was tightly controlled.
He thanked voters for their support, in a poll that was widely seen as being designed to favor him.
Ebrahim Raisi is Iran’s top judge and holds ultra-conservative views. He is under US sanctions and has been linked to past executions of political prisoners.
Iran’s president is the second-highest ranking official in the country, after the supreme leader.
Ebrahim Raisi will have significant influence over domestic policy and foreign affairs. But in Iran’s political system it is the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the top religious cleric, who has the final say on all state matters.
Ebrahim Raisi, 60, has thanked the supreme leader for “creating the ground… that all people play a role in the formation of the new government.”
Iran is run according to conservative Shia Islamic values, and there have been curbs on political freedoms since its Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Many Iranians saw this latest election as having been engineered for Ebrahim Raisi to win, and shunned the poll.
The cleric has served as a prosecutor for most of his career. He was appointed head of the judiciary in 2019, two years after he lost by a landslide to Hassan Rouhani in the last presidential election.
Ebrahim Raisi has presented himself as the best person to fight corruption and solve Iran’s economic problems.
“Our people’s grievances over shortcomings are real,” he said as he cast his vote in Tehran.
He is fiercely loyal to Iran’s ruling clerics, and has even been seen as a possible successor to Ayatollah Khamenei as the country’s supreme leader.
Many Iranians and rights groups have pointed to Ebrahim Raisi’s role in the mass executions of political prisoners in the 1980s. He was one of four judges who oversaw death sentences for about 5,000 prisoners, according to Amnesty International.
“That Ebrahim Raisi has risen to the presidency instead of being investigated for the crimes against humanity of murder, enforced disappearance and torture, is a grim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran,” said Amnesty chief Agnès Callamard.
Iran has never acknowledged the mass executions and Ebrahim Raisi has never addressed the allegations about his role in them.
Amnesty also says that as head of the judiciary Ebrahim Raisi oversaw impunity for officials and security forces accused of killing protesters during unrest in 2019.
He has promised to ease unemployment and work to remove US sanctions that have contributed to economic hardship for ordinary Iranians and caused widespread discontent.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed in 2015, gave Iran relief from Western sanctions in return for limiting its nuclear activities.
The US pulled out of the deal in 2018, and President Trump’s administration re-imposed crippling limits on Iran’s ability to trade. Ebrahim Raisi was among the officials sanctioned.
Iran has responded by re-starting nuclear operations that were banned under the deal.
Talks aimed at resurrecting the deal are ongoing in Vienna, with President Joe Biden also keen to revive it. But both sides say the other must make the first move.
Catholic bishops face clash with President Joe Biden after voting to commission a document that may call for him to be barred from Holy Communion.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) clashed online over whether to draw up a teaching document on politicians who support abortion.
Holy Communion is the most important ritual in the Catholic Christian faith.
The Catholic president regularly attends Mass.
Responding to news of the bishops’ vote, President Biden said: “That’s a private matter and I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”
The Vatican has already indicated its opposition to the bishops’ move.
After the debate on June 17, the Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron, vice-president of the USCCB, announced the move had passed by 168 to 55, with six abstentions.
The US clergy is deeply divided on the issue. The Most Rev Robert McElroy, bishop of San Diego, warned such a document would lead to the “weaponization” of the Eucharist (the more formal name for Holy Communion).
However, the Most Rev Liam Cary, the bishop of Baker, Oregon, said the Church was in an “unprecedented situation”, with “a Catholic president who is opposed to the teaching” of the Church.
The document will now be drafted by the doctrine committee of US bishops.
However, although it will be a form of national policy, it will not be binding. Each individual bishop has the right to decide who should be blocked from the Mass in his diocese.
The document will return for debate at the next bi-annual US Catholic Bishops Conference in November.
The controversial issue of whether politicians who support abortion should receive Mass has become more prominent with the election of Joe Biden as president.
Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, warned most priests would be “puzzled to hear that bishops now want to talk about excluding people at a time when the real challenge before them is welcoming people back to the regular practice of the faith and rebuilding their communities”.
However, proposing the motion, Bishop Kevin Roades, of Fort Wayne-South Bend, said: “We weren’t targeting particular individuals or limited to one issue, but I think we need to accept the [Church’s] discipline that those who obstinately persist in grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”
Cardinal Luis Ladaria – the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s theological watchdog – urged the US Catholic Bishops Conference to delay the debate.
He wrote to the conference saying it would be “misleading” to suggest abortion and euthanasia were “the only grave matters of Catholic moral and social teaching that demand the fullest level of accountability on the part of Catholics”.
Catholics for Choice, an abortion rights group, said it was profoundly saddened by the move.
IKEA France has been fined €1 million ($1.2 million) after it was found guilty of spying on staff, a Versailles court has ruled.
Meanwhile, the former CEO of Ikea France, Jean-Louis Baillot, was given a two-year suspended jail term and €50,000 fine.
The French subsidiary of the Swedish furniture chain was found to have used private detectives and police officers to collect private data on staff. Evidence came to light in 2012.
Stung by the affair, Ikea fired four managers and got a new code of conduct.
The 15 people in the dock at the Versailles court included top executives and former store managers.
Four police officers were also on trial for handing over confidential information.
The mass surveillance system was used by store managers to vet job applicants, as well as checking up on their staff.
Ikea’s annual bill for private investigators ran to as much as €600,000, AFP reports, citing court documents.
In one case, AFP reports, Ikea’s former head of risk wanted to know how an employee could afford a new BMW convertible; he also inquired why a staff member in Bordeaux had “suddenly become a protester”.
That executive, Jean-François Paris, was given an 18-month suspended sentence and a €10,000 fine.
The prosecution had called for a €2 million fine for Ikea and for Baillot to spend a year in prison, along with a further two years suspended.
The case centered on Ikea France’s surveillance of staff from 2009 to 2012. The scandal was exposed by journalists, then trade unions took legal action.
The illegal surveillance covered about 400 people, state prosecutor Pamela Tabardel said.
“What’s at stake is the protection of our private lives against the threat of mass surveillance,” she said when the trial opened in March.
Managers were found to have used a private security firm, Eirpace, which in turn collected personal data from the police. It included information about lifestyles and any previous criminal convictions.
The Eirpace boss, Jean-Pierre Fourès, was given a two-year suspended sentence and a €20,000 fine.
When the trial opened, Ikea France issued a statement saying it “strongly condemned” the privacy violations and it apologized for “this situation which does serious harm to the company’s values and ethical standards”.
China has accused the G7 of “political manipulation” after it criticized Beijing over a range of issues.
In a joint statement at the end of a three-day summit, G7 leaders urged China to “respect human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
Issues highlighted included abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority group and the crackdown on Hong Kong pro-democracy activists.
China’s embassy in the UK accused the G7 of “baseless accusations”.
The statement by the G7 – the world’s seven largest so-called advanced economies – included pledges on a number of issues, such as ending the coronavirus pandemic and steps to tackle climate change, as well as references to China.
The G7 group, made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, called on China to respect human rights in Xinjiang, a north-western region that is home to the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
The G7 statement also called for rights and freedoms to be respected in Hong Kong. The leaders said Hong Kong should retain a “high degree of autonomy”, as established under agreements when it was handed back to China in 1997.
The statement underscored the “importance of peace and stability” across the Taiwan Strait – a heavily-policed waterway that separates China and Taiwan. China sees democratic Taiwan as a breakaway province, but Taiwan sees itself as a sovereign state.
It also demanded a new investigation in China into the origins of Covid-19.
President Joe Biden said he was “satisfied” with the statement’s language on China.
A stronger message on China is expected to be issued by leaders of the NATO military alliance at a meeting on June 14.
“We know that China does not share our values… we need to respond together as an alliance,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said as he arrived at the one-day summit in Brussels.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the country would feature in NATO’s communiqué “in a more robust way than we’ve ever seen before”.
A private company – Luma Energy – took over operation and maintenance of Puerto Rico’s power system this month.
On June 10, Luma Energy said that the fire broke out at the Monacillo power distribution plant soon after the company website was hit with two million visits per second, in a cyber-attack known as a denial of service.
Outages have already affected more than one million households in Puerto Rico so far this month.
Political organizations linked to Alexei Navalny have been banned by a court in Moscow after classifying them as “extremist”.
Activists will risk prison sentences if they continue their work and anyone who publicly supports Alexei Navalny’s political network can now be barred from running for public office.
Writing on social media, Alexei Navalny promised he would “not retreat”.
However, the Kremlin critic said his supporters would now have to change how they work.
Alexei Navalny is now jailed for violating the terms of parole in an embezzlement case – charges he says are politically motivated.
Russian parliamentary elections are due to take place in September and opinion polls show the ruling party losing support. Some of Alexei Navalny’s supporters have been planning to run in the elections.
Following June 9 ruling, a court statement said Alexei Navalny’s regional network offices and his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) had been banned with immediate effect.
Alexei Navalny’s lawyers said they would appeal against the ruling.
A message later posted on Navalny’s Instagram account said: “We’re not going anywhere. We’ll digest this, sort things out, change, and evolve. We’ll adapt. We won’t step back from our aims and ideas. This is our country and we do not have another one.”
Alexei Navalny – President Vladimir Putin’s foremost critic – was detained in January as soon as he returned to Russia from Germany. He had received treatment in Berlin for a nerve agent attack in Siberia last August that left him in a coma and fighting for his life.
He blamed President Putin directly for the attack which nearly killed him. The Kremlin denied any involvement.
The pro-Putin United Russia party, which dominates parliament, has been described by the opposition leader as “the party of crooks and thieves”, and millions of Russians have watched his videos alleging corruption in President Putin’s elite circle.
Alexei Navalny is expected to be a topic on the agenda of talks between Vladimir Putin and President Joe Biden at their first summit on June 16.
Vladimir Putin, who has been in power as either president or prime minister since 1999, recently said he hoped the Geneva meeting would improve the “extremely low level of relations” between the two countries but expected no breakthroughs.
Ideally, growing companies would be able to dedicate as much money as they needed to in order to enhance their marketing efforts. However, in reality, most small businesses have a finite marketing budget. This means that business leaders may have to make tough choices about how best to allocate available funds. If you’re working with a tight budget, but want to maintain a strong marketing presence all the same, then this blog is for you. Here are three tips you can use to make the most of your marketing budget:
Track Everything
Put as simply as possible, the best way to spend your marketing budget is to support campaigns that are successful or that have been successful in the past. Easy enough, right? The problem is that many companies don’t actually know where their leads come from. Some professionals may have no idea which marketing campaigns are producing the best results and which are falling short of expectations. That’s why it’s absolutely essential to track conversions and sales from each of your campaigns. The better data you have, the more informed decisions you can make and the better outcomes you can expect to achieve in the future!
Focus on Quality Leads
Want to get the most bang for your buck when you start marketing online? Then focus most of your efforts on retargeting previous customers and high-quality leads. It can be easy to get excited about campaigns that generate a lot of clicks and attention for your company. Yet, at the end of the day, marketing tactics need to produce tangible returns. If you’re most concerned about making money now, then prioritize re-targeting measures and specific campaigns designed for serious customers. You may generate fewer leads this way, but it could end up producing more sales.
Think Long-Term
Too often, business leaders take a reactive approach to digital marketing. If a campaign begins to falter, they may scrap it prematurely. This is a bad idea. Some marketing strategies can take months or even years to fully develop. As such, don’t start a marketing plan that you aren’t prepared to fully support. The silver lining to long-term marketing is that it can produce significant ROI and set your company up for success. Just because you have a disappointing month using email marketing tactics, it doesn’t mean you should quit doing it altogether! A little patience can go a long way in this regard.
Conclusion
Whether your company sells athletic fit scrubs or household appliances, these tips will help you get the most from your marketing budget. Keep them handy moving forward!
To fill vacancies, hiring managers generally have two options, hiring someone externally or promoting from within. While there are pros and cons of each, there are many benefits to filling that role with a current employee, including these.
Save Time and Money
The Society for Human Resource Management reports that the time to hire has been increasing significantly over the past decade or so. By promoting from within, you’ll get someone in the role much quicker and at a much lower price tag. The cost of filling a vacant position is tied to time – it increases every day it goes unfilled, not to mention there may be existing employees who have to cover the duties of that position, sacrificing their time and productivity too. The time it takes to onboard and train a brand new employee also adds to the overall cost.
While having an applicant tracking system (ATS) will help streamline the process, when you look within your organization to hire, you’ll save significantly on both time and money.
It Provides Motivation
When you promote from within, your employees will know that there are opportunities for career development which helps keep them motivated to work harder, encouraging them to do their best. It creates an atmosphere of optimism that tends to have a positive effect on the entire team, and, ultimately, the entire company. Hiring externally when there may be someone already there who is perfect for the role can have the opposite effect, sapping motivation.
Employee Retention
Not only does promoting from within help to create a more positive environment with employees motivated to work harder, but it can also improve employee retention. People will see that there are opportunities for career growth and will be less likely to look elsewhere. In fact, surveys have found that the most commonly cited reason for leaving a job other than pay is a lack of career growth.
You Already Know the Employee is a Good Cultural Fit
While skills and experience are important, a good cultural fit is also a key piece of the puzzle. When hiring a brand-new employee, their resume may be perfect, but it’s difficult to know whether or not they’ll fit in with the company’s culture. Perhaps they won’t be able to keep up with the fast pace, or worse, have anger issues that make them a loose cannon, creating tension that harms the work environment. When promoting from within, you’ll avoid the friction that comes with having to ramp up someone from the outside instead of bringing in an employee who already embodies the organization’s DNA.
You’ll Bolster Your Company’s Reputation
A great company image will attract the very best talent as the best applicants will do their research on companies before making any commitment. If your organization is known for rewarding employees for their long-term dedication, it not only improves morale, but it will bolster your reputation to keep you competitive in the job market when you’re truly in need of a new hire from the outside.
Construction accidents are virtually inevitable. You can certainly follow all the safety rules and regulations that exist, but construction sites are full of potentially dangerous equipment, and occasionally, something is bound to go wrong. The question is, who can you hold legally responsible if an accident occurs?
That’s sometimes not as straightforward to figure out as you might expect. Let’s look at the four main entities who you might try to hold accountable if you injure yourself on a construction site.
Equipment or Construction Machinery Manufacturers
If a construction accident injures you, you might be able to sue an equipment or construction machinery manufacturer. However, that will only be the case in certain specific instances.
There’s no point in going after an equipment manufacturer unless you can establish that the equipment or machinery malfunctioned in such a way that it hurt you. If you mishandled the machinery, such as if you never received the proper training in how to use it, a lawsuit is not going to get you very far.
Defective equipment or machinery can harm workers, but a lawyer might have a tough time convincing a jury that’s what happened. They might bring in expert witnesses who can reconstruct the accident or examine the machinery to determine that it malfunctioned.
Architects or Engineers
Engineers or architects are usually the ones who design the structures that you create on construction sites. Because of this, you’re trying to create their vision. That means you’re following along according to the plans they lay out.
These architects and engineers must comply with all safety regulations that exist. They also have to carry out regular site inspections to make sure nothing looks unsafe.
During the project’s design and construction phases, they must also follow accepted performance standards. They must be very knowledgeable about what materials to use.
If all you do is follow along with what an engineer or architect says, but you still hurt yourself because of faulty plans or materials, you might focus on the engineer, architect, or both, if you elect to bring a lawsuit. They must always have worker safety in mind, and if they fail in that charge, you might be able to build a case against them.
General and Sub-Contractors
It’s up to the general and sub-contractors to provide you, the construction workers, with a safe environment in which to do your job. If there are any inherent hazards on the site, they need to tell you about them. They also must inform you of any defects that exist.
They must hire competent professional workers who know what they’re doing. They should follow all regulations that exist within the construction industry.
Any safety lapse that causes you to hurt yourself while on the job might be enough for you to take a general or sub-contractor to court. If they know you don’t have the training or know-how to handle the job, they have no business hiring you. They should also be present on the site to oversee any active work that you’re doing on it.
Construction Site Property Owners
The construction site property owner is one more individual who you might name in a lawsuit if you hurt yourself on the job. An owner must maintain their property and make sure it’s safe to use as a worksite. If a harmful condition exists, and they knew about it, but they let you continue working anyway, you can often find them liable in court.
Some construction site property owners might want you to press on and finish a project, even if they know a dangerous condition exists. That might be because they have a deadline, and they don’t want anything to get in its way.
Finishing projects on time matters, but safety is always going to matter more. The challenging part might be proving that the site owner knew about the dangerous condition, though. They may try to deny it, especially if their reputation and a lot of money are at stake.
Remember, though, an owner might turn site control over to an independent contractor. If that’s true, the contractor should be a lawsuit’s target, not the owner.
Even though these are the four most likely culprits if you hurt yourself while on a construction site, it’s also possible that you might sue more than one of them. It could be that multiple individuals or entities behaved improperly, and if so, there’s no reason not to go after each of them.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have announced the birth of their second child, Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.
According to Buckingham Palace, the Queen is “delighted” after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made the announcement.
Princes Charles and William also congratulated the couple on social media.
Queen Elizabeth’s 11th great-grandchild was born on June 4 at a hospital in Santa Barbara, California.
Lilibet was the Queen’s nickname when she was a child.
Buckingham Palace said: “The Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been informed and are delighted with the news.”
Prince William and the Duchess and Cambridge said: “We are all delighted by the happy news of the arrival of baby Lili.”
Lilibet was born at 11:40 AM local time, weighing 7 lbs 11oz.
She is eighth in line to the throne – meaning Prince Andrew, who was born as second in line in 1960, moves down to ninth place.
Lilibet – the Queen’s family nickname – was coined when then-Princess Elizabeth was just a toddler and could not pronounce her name properly.
Her grandfather, King George V, would affectionately call her Lilibet, imitating her own attempts to say her name. It soon stuck and she became Lilibet to her family from then on.
Prince Harry and Meghan said their baby’s middle name, Diana, was chosen to honor her “beloved late grandmother”, the Princess of Wales.
In a message of thanks on the couple’s Archewell website, they said: “On June 4, we were blessed with the arrival of our daughter, Lili.
“She is more than we could have ever imagined, and we remain grateful for the love and prayers we’ve felt from across the globe.
“Thank you for your continued kindness and support during this very special time for our family.”
The message adds that anyone wishing to send gifts is asked to “support or learn more about” organizations working for women and girls.
They have not released any photos of their daughter.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle quit their roles as senior working royals in March 2020. Speaking last month, the duke said moving to the US had not been part of the plan, but he felt he had to put his family and mental health first.
As a result of the move, Lilibet is the most senior royal in the current line of succession to be born overseas.
Like her older brother Archie and most of the Queen’s great-grandchildren, Lilibet is not eligible to have a royal title.
Under rules laid out more than 100 years ago, Lilibet would not be allowed to be a princess nor an HRH until Prince Charles becomes king.
Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts have been suspended for two years.
The former president was barred indefinitely from both sites in January in the wake of posts he made on the Capitol riots, but last month Facebook’s Oversight Board criticized the open-ended penalty.
Facebook Inc. said Donald Trump’s actions were “a severe violation of our rules”.
The former president said the move was “an insult” to the millions who voted for him in last year’s presidential election.
Facebook’s move comes as the social media giant is also ending a policy shielding politicians from some content moderation rules.
It said that it would no longer give politicians immunity for deceptive or abusive content based on their comments being newsworthy.
Donald Trump’s ban was effective from the date of the initial suspension on January 7, Facebook’s vice-president of global affairs Nick Clegg said in a post.
“Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available,” it added.
“If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded.”
On his return, Donald Trump will be held to “a strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions,” for any violations, Nick Clegg’s statement noted.
In a statement issued from his Save America political action committee, Donald Trump said: “Facebook’s ruling is an insult to the record-setting 75m people, plus many others, who voted for us…”
“They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win. Our country can’t take this abuse anymore!”
In a second statement on the two-year ban, Donald Trump attacked Facebook’s founder.
“Next time I’m in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife,” he said.
The move by Facebook allows Donald Trump to return to the platform before the 2024 presidential election.
It also comes as the former president prepares to again hold the large scale in-person rallies that were a signature of his campaigns and presidency. One of his first is planned for Dallas, Texas, in early July, according to local media.
Earlier this week, it emerged that the communications platform set up by Donald Trump in the wake of his social media bans – From the Desk of Donald J. Trump – has been permanently shut down.
In addition to Facebook, which has over two billion monthly users, Donald Trump has also been banned from Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitch and other social media platforms over the January riot.
Last month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican Trump ally, signed the first law in the US that punished tech companies for de-platforming politicians.
NASA will send two new missions to Venus in order to examine the planet’s atmosphere and geological features.
The missions, which have each been awarded $500 million in funding, are due to launch between 2028 and 2030.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson said the missions would offer the “chance to investigate a planet we haven’t been to in more than 30 years”.
The last American probe to visit Venus was the Magellan orbiter in 1990.
However, other spacecraft – from Europe and Japan – have orbited the planet since then.
The missions were picked following a peer review process and were chosen based on their potential scientific value and the feasibility of their development plans.
“These two sister missions both aim to understand how Venus became an inferno-like world, capable of melting lead at the surface,” Bill Nelson said.
Venus is the second planet from the sun and the hottest planet in the solar system with a surface temperature of 500C – high enough to melt lead.
The Davinci+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) mission will measure the planet’s atmosphere to gain insight into how it formed and evolved. It will also aim to determine whether Venus ever had an ocean.
Davinci+ is expected to return the first high resolution images of the planet’s “tesserae” geological features. Scientists believe these features could be comparable to continents on Earth and could suggest that Venus has plate tectonics.
The second mission, Veritas (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy), will map the planet’s surface to understand its geological history and investigate how it developed so differently than Earth.
It will use a form of radar to chart surface elevations and discover whether volcanoes and earthquakes are still happening.
China’s Sinovac Covid vaccine has been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) for emergency use.
Sinovac is the second Chinese vaccine to receive the green light from the WHO, after Sinopharm.
The WHO approval opens the door for the vaccine to be used in the Covax program, which aims to ensure fair access to vaccines.
Sinovac, which has already been used in several countries, has been recommended for over 18s, with a second dose two to four weeks later.
The emergency approval means the Chinese vaccine “meets international standards for safety, efficacy and manufacturing”, the WHO said.
Studies showed that Sinovac prevented symptomatic disease in more than half of those vaccinated and prevented severe symptoms and hospitalization in 100% of those studied, it added.
It is hoped that the decision to list the Chinese vaccine for emergency use will give a boost to the Covax initiative, which has been struggling with supply problems.
“The world desperately needs multiple Covid-19 vaccines to address the huge access inequity across the globe,” said Mariangela Simao, the WHO’s assistant director general for access to health products.
“We urge manufacturers to participate in the Covax facility, share their know-how and data and contribute to bringing the pandemic under control,” she said.
As well as China, Sinovac is already being administered in countries including Chile, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand and Turkey.
Sinovac says it has supplied more than 600 million doses at home and abroad as of the end of May. It says more than 430 million doses have been administered.
One of Sinovac’s main advantages is that it can be stored in a standard refrigerator at 2-8 degrees Celsius. This means Sinovac is a lot more useful to developing countries which might not be able to store large amounts of vaccine at low temperatures.
The emergency approval came as the heads of the WHO, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank appealed for a $50 billion investment fund to help end the pandemic.
In a joint statement they said the world had reached a perilous point, and that inequalities in access to vaccines risked prolonging the pandemic, and many more deaths.
They have called for the money to be invested in areas including vaccine production, oxygen supplies, and Covid-19 treatments, ensuring they are distributed fairly.
They also called on wealthy countries to donate vaccine doses immediately to developing nations.
According to new reports, the US and Denmark worked together to spy on top European politicians, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Danish broadcaster DR said Denmark’s Defense Intelligence Service (FE) collaborated with the US National Security Agency (NSA) to gather information from 2012 to 2014.
Both FE and the NSA are yet to comment.
Denmark’s Defense Minister, Trine Bramsen, did not confirm or deny the report but told AFP that “systemic eavesdropping of close allies is unacceptable”. She was not in charge of the ministry during the alleged spying.
“This is not acceptable between allies, and even less between allies and European partners,” said French President Emmanuel Macron, after speaking with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Angela Merkel said she agreed with President Macron’s comments, but that she was also reassured by the Danish defense minister’s condemnation.
Intelligence was allegedly collected on other officials from Germany, France, Sweden and Norway. Those nations have also called for explanations.
Norwegian PM Erna Solberg told public broadcaster NRK: “It’s unacceptable if countries which have close allied co-operation feel the need to spy on one another.”
The NSA is said to have accessed text messages and the phone conversations of a number of prominent individuals by tapping into Danish internet cables in co-operation with the FE.
The alleged set-up, said in the report to have been codenamed “Operation Dunhammer”, allowed the NSA to obtain data using the telephone numbers of politicians as search parameters, according to DR.
DR interviewed nine sources, all of whom are said to have had access to classified information held by the FE.
Along with Chancellor Merkel, then-German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the opposition leader at the time, Peer Steinbrück, are also said to have been targeted.
Similar allegations emerged in 2013.
Then, secrets leaked by American whistleblower Edward Snowden alleged tapping of Angela Merkel’s phone by the NSA.
When those allegations were made, the White House gave no outright denial but said Angela Merkel’s phone was not being bugged at the time and would not be in future.
Following the new report, Edward Snowden accused President Joe Biden of being “deeply involved in this scandal the first time around”. Joe Biden was vice-president at the time the reported surveillance took place.
Black Lives Matter’s co-founder Patrisse Cullors has announced she is resigning from its foundation, but not because of what she called right-wing attempts to discredit her.
Patrisse Cullors, 37, said May 28 would be her last day at the foundation, which she has led for nearly six years.
Her finances came under scrutiny last month after it was reported she owned four homes.
Black Lives Matter started as a hashtag in 2013 and has since become a global movement.
Patrisse Cullors said she would step down from the Black Lives Matter Global Network to focus on her forthcoming second book, An Abolitionist’s Handbook, and a TV development deal with Warner Bros highlighting black stories.
She said in a statement: “With smart, experienced and committed people supporting the organization during this transition, I know that BLMGNF is in good hands.
“The foundation’s agenda remains the same – eradicate white supremacy and build life-affirming institutions.”
Patrisse Cullors told the AP her resignation had been planned for more than a year and was not related to claims that she had misused donations to acquire her property portfolio. There is no evidence to suggest that she had done so.
“Those were right-wing attacks that tried to discredit my character, and I don’t operate off of what the right thinks about me,” she said.
The BLM Foundation told AP in February that it had raised $90 million amid last year’s racial justice protests following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The foundation said it ended 2020 with a balance of more than $60 million, after operating expenses, grants to black-led organizations and other expenses.
Last month, the New York Post reported that Patrisse Cullors – a self-described Marxist – had bought a $1.4 million luxury home in Topanga Canyon, near Malibu, and owned three other homes, including a custom ranch in Georgia.
Facebook banned users from sharing the story, citing privacy concerns, and a black journalist said he was locked out of his Twitter account after he posted the article.
Conservative critics – but also some black activists – called for an investigation into whether Patrisse Cullors had used the organization’s funds to enrich herself.
In April, the BLM Foundation said that Patrisse Cullors had received $120,000 between 2013 and 2019 for her work.
It said in a statement: “As a registered 501c3 non-profit organization, [the foundation] cannot and did not commit any organizational resources toward the purchase of personal property by any employee or volunteer.
“Any insinuation or assertion to the contrary is categorically false.”
Patrisse Cullors appeared to hold back tears as she told the Black News Channel last month that suggestions of financial impropriety against her were “categorically untrue and incredibly dangerous”.
The grieving parents of Michael Brown and Breonna Taylor – two African Americans whose deaths at the hands of white police officers were often cited by Black Lives Matter – last month reportedly complained the foundation had done nothing to help them.
President Joe Biden has ordered intelligence officials to “redouble” efforts to investigate the origins of Covid-19, including the theory that it came from a laboratory in China.
The president said the US intelligence community was split on whether it came from a lab accident or emerged from human contact with an infected animal.
He asked the groups to report back to him within 90 days.
China has rejected the laboratory theory.
“Smear campaigns and blame shifting are making a comeback, and the conspiracy theory of ‘lab leak’ is resurfacing,” its embassy in the US said in a statement on May 27.
Since it was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, more than 168 million cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed worldwide and at least 3.5 million deaths reported.
Authorities linked early Covid cases to a seafood market in Wuhan, leading scientists to theorize the virus first passed to humans from animals.
However, recent media reports have suggested growing evidence the virus could instead have emerged from a laboratory in China, perhaps through an accidental leak.
In a statement on May 26, President Biden said he had asked for a report on the origins of Covid-19 after taking office, “including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident”.
On receiving it this month, he asked for “additional follow-up”.
President Biden said the majority of the intelligence community had “coalesced” around those two scenarios, but “do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other”.
He has now asked agencies to “redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion”.
President Biden concluded by saying the US would “keep working with like-minded partners around the world to press China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation”.
Beijing has previously suggested Covid-19 could have come from a US laboratory instead.
In its statement, the Chinese embassy said it supported a full investigation into “some secretive bases and biological laboratories all over the world”.
On May 27, on spokesman for China’s foreign ministry hit out at the “dark history” of the US intelligence community, and said the Biden administration’s “motive and purposes” were clear.
President Biden’s statement came as CNN reported that the president’s administration this spring shut down a state department investigation into whether the virus could have leaked from a Wuhan lab, deeming the probe an ineffective use of resources.
Speculation about the Wuhan Institute of Virology – one of China’s top virus research labs – began in 2020 and was propagated by President Donald Trump.
In April 2020, State Department cables came to light that showed embassy officials were worried about biosecurity at the lab.
The leak allegations were widely dismissed as a fringe conspiracy theory.
Earlier this year, the WHO issued a report written jointly with Chinese scientists on the origins of Covid-19 which said the chances of it having started in a lab were “extremely unlikely”.
The WHO report said the virus had probably jumped from bats to humans via another intermediary animal, but more research was needed.
However, questions have persisted and recent reports attributed to US intelligence sources say three members of the Wuhan Institute of Virology were admitted to hospital in November 2019, several weeks before China acknowledged the first case of the new disease in the community.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser, has maintained he believes the virus was passed from animals to humans, though he conceded this month he was no longer confident Covid-19 had developed naturally.
President Biden’s statement came the day after Xavier Becerra, US secretary for health and human services, urged the WHO to ensure a “transparent” investigation into the virus’s origins.
Losing weight is hardly ever easy. Even though we all might know the basic formula for shedding pounds and maintaining an ideal weight — to eat less and move more — there are other factors at play that cause our bodies and minds, as well as our environments, to wreak havoc with our chances for weight loss success.
If you’ve attempted one diet after another and struggled through every exercise program under the sun but still haven’t managed to hit your weight loss goal, it could be time for a different approach. Here are four tips to try; one of them just might help you ditch those stubborn pounds once and for all!
Do a (Natural) Cleanse
While an extreme cleanse isn’t recommended — it can starve the body of vital nutrients and lead to bacterial imbalances, decreased immunity, general malaise and sustained ill health — there are ways to boost natural detox processes within the liver, kidneys, lungs and skin. Drink water; eat healthy, protein-rich (not carb-loaded) food that aids digestion (like tea, healthy fats, berries and leafy greens); and keep moving! With impurities flushed away, your body (and especially your mind) might be more ready for healthier living in the future, making weight loss more likely to obtain.
Practice Intermittent Fasting
Research shows that when you eat could be as important as what you eat when it comes to weight loss. And if that doesn’t influence you to try intermittent fasting, research also shows that fasting can help fend off and even cure certain diseases! Sign us up!
Basically, intermittent fasting involves limiting the time you eat to a few hours each day or to eating only a certain number of calories every few days. Normal eating patterns have us consuming food all day, every day. By limiting food consumption to a specific time period or specific caloric intake, the body is able to more readily exhaust available calories and start burning fat. And when our bodies burn fat, we lose weight.
Try Lipotropic Injections
Many people have had success using a specific combination of vitamins, minerals and amino acids to boost their weight loss progress. Usually given as a weekly injection, these shots (called lipotropic injections) are offered through many natural health and medspa providers (such as the Institute of Natural Health in St. Louis). It is believed that these added nutrients foster improved energy consumption and increase metabolism, thereby aiding in general weight loss.
Meditate
There’s little doubt that the mind is a powerful contributor to overall health. There have been numerous studies that support the mind-body connection. Thus, it makes sense that controlling our minds can help us control our bodies. For instance, many nutritionists and other health care providers recommend meditation as a tool for clearing our thoughts so that we have the ability to focus on and commit to beneficial habits (like eating well, exercising and avoiding unhealthy triggers). When done correctly and consistently, meditation has been shown to improve the practitioner’s well-being and aid in his or her weight loss when needed.
These days, many people go online to access goods and services of all types. One of the things that many people do is to check out online reviews from other people before they make any decision with regard to purchasing goods and services that they are interested in. This makes it far easier for them to make an informed decision with regard to the most suitable choice for their needs.
As a homeowner in Richmond, one of the services you may be looking for is a foundation contractor to check or repair foundation issues at your home. If you need to find foundation contractors in Richmond, it can prove extremely helpful to look at reviews from other homeowners in the area before you make your decision. There are many ways in which you can benefit by looking at reviews from other people, and we will look at some of these benefits in this article.
Some Benefits of Looking at Reviews
Finding the right foundation contractor is a very important task, as this type of work must be carried out to high standards in order to protect your home. By looking at reviews, you can find out a lot of valuable information that can help you to make an informed choice. This includes:
The Standard of Workmanship
When it comes to something as crucial as foundation repairs at your home, you naturally want to ensure the standard of workmanship is high. However, if you have never used this type of professional before and cannot get personal recommendations from friends and family members, it can be difficult to determine whether the quality of work will be up to scratch. Fortunately, looking at online reviews will make it much easier to determine what the standard of workmanship is like based on the experiences of other people.
Reliability of the Provider
When you are having foundation repair work carried out at your home, you naturally want a provider that is very reliable. The last thing you need is someone that fails to turn up or spends more time taking tea breaks than doing the work. You also do not want a provider that promises the earth and then fails to deliver or botches up the job completely. By looking at online reviews, you can learn more about how reliable the provider was, which means that you can make your decision with far greater confidence.
Level of Service Offered
It is also important to find professionals that offer a high level of service so that you can get any issues ironed out quickly and easily. What you don’t want is someone who is communicative until they have been paid and then becomes impossible to get hold of it any issues arise. So, make sure you look at reviews and learn more about the levels of customer service provided by the company before you make up your mind.
These are just a few of the ways in which online reviews can help you.
A Ryanair plane from Greece to Lithuania was diverted to Belarus for several hours on May 23, with activists saying it was done to arrest dissident journalist Roman Protasevich on board.
European nations reacted with outrage, accusing Belarus of “state terrorism”.
Ex-editor of the Nexta group Roman Protasevich was detained before the plane was allowed to resume its flight.
Belarus media said a MiG-29 escorted the jet to Minsk because of a bomb scare but no explosives were found.
The plane finally landed in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, its original destination, at 21:25 local time, more than seven hours after its scheduled arrival.
Arriving passengers said the situation in Minsk had been calm but that they were given no information. One said Roman Protasevich looked “super scared. I looked directly to his eyes and it was very sad”.
There have already been calls for the EU and NATO to intervene.
Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who was beaten by Alexander Lukashenko in last year’s presidential polls widely denounced as rigged, was among those demanding Roman Protasevich’s release.
Since last year’s election, President Lukashenko, who has ruled the country since 1994, has cracked down on dissenting voices. Many opposition figures have been arrested or, like Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, fled into exile.
Flight FR4978 was en route from Athens to Vilnius when it turned east to Minsk shortly before it reached the Lithuanian border. Greece and Lithuania put the number of passengers on board at 171.
In a statement, Ryanair said that the crew were “notified by Belarus (Air Traffic Control) of a potential security threat on board and were instructed to divert to the nearest airport, Minsk”.
Ryanair said checks in Minsk found “nothing untoward” and the aircraft was cleared to depart, leaving Minsk at 20:50 local time.
“Ryanair has notified the relevant national and European safety and security agencies and we apologise sincerely to all affected passengers for this regrettable delay which was outside Ryanair’s control,” the statement added.
The Ryanair statement made no mention of Roman Protasevich.
Nexta was the first to break the news of his arrest.
Editor-in-chief Tadeusz Giczan tweeted a quote from a passenger on the plane who said that Roman Protasevich had told them who he was once they were on the ground at Minsk, with him adding “they’ll execute me here”.
Belta, the state-owned news agency in Belarus, said President Lukashenko had personally given the order for the plane to land in Minsk following the bomb alert, and approved despatching the MiG-29 fighter jet.
An Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip has come into effect early on Friday, May 21.
The ceasefire brings to an end 11 days of fighting in which more than 250 people were killed, most of them in Gaza.
Palestinians poured on to the streets of Gaza soon after the truce began, while a Hamas official warned the group had not let down its guard.
Both Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have claimed victory in the conflict.
President Joe Biden said the ceasefire had brought a “genuine opportunity” for progress.
Soon after the ceasefire started at 02:00 on May 21, large numbers of Palestinians took to the streets in cars and on foot to celebrate. In Gaza, drivers honked their horns, while loudspeakers from mosques pronounced “the victory of the resistance”.
Israel’s military said it was removing nearly all emergency restrictions on movement throughout the country.
Fighting broke out on May 10 after weeks of rising Israeli-Palestinian tension in occupied East Jerusalem that culminated in clashes at a holy site revered by both Muslims and Jews. Hamas began firing rockets after warning Israel to withdraw from the site, triggering retaliatory air strikes.
At least 243 people, including more than 100 women and children, were killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry. Israel has said it killed at least 225 militants during the fighting. Hamas has not given casualty figures for fighters.
In Israel, 12 people, including two children, were killed, its medical service says.
The Israeli military says more than 4,300 rockets were fired towards its territory by militants and that it struck more than 1,000 militant targets in Gaza.
The Israeli Political Security Cabinet said on May 20 it had “unanimously accepted the recommendation” for a ceasefire.
PM Benjamin Netanyahu faced criticism from some in Israel who said he had halted the conflict too soon. The mayors of Sderot and Ashkelon – two of the Israeli towns hardest hit by rockets from Gaza – were among those to voice their disappointment, saying Hamas should have been eliminated.
At a news conference on May 21, PM Netanyahu said Israel had “exacted a heavy price from Hamas”.
A Hamas official told the Associated Press the ceasefire announced by Israel amounted to a “victory” for the Palestinian people.
This view was shared by people celebrating on the streets of Gaza.
Many people have good routines already for keeping their home neat and tidy, but it is also important that you limit the spread of both infections and illnesses by doing so. While it is imperative that, if you hear about illnesses becoming more frequent, you do extra to prevent them from entering your household, it can be a much better practice to adhere to antibacterial cleaning methods all year round. Even though some specific illnesses may be rife at certain times of the year, there is never a guarantee that illnesses won’t be consistently spreading, so need to be kept on top of at all times.
Pink Eye
Pink eye can be removed from your home in a number of ways. Firstly, you will want to take solid, professional advice on how to ease pink eye symptoms to stop those who have contracted it from suffering any longer than they need to. The sooner you treat pink eye, the quicker the infection will clear up. This includes not touching the eye area any more than necessary, even if it itches, and keeping the area clean, alongside the use of antibiotics or eye drops. Alongside this, you also need to prevent re-infection in the home, which can be achieved by stopping sharing towels and other similar items, as well as making sure they are washed regularly and at a high temperature.
Stomach Bugs
A viral stomach bug, when highly contagious, can quickly take over your home, turning bathrooms into fought over commodities. Taking the time to wash your hands well before preparing food, after using the toilet, and after touching high traffic surfaces can limit the exposure to others in the home. It can also be a good idea to stay off of work or school until symptoms have subsided, to limit exposure to others in your life. Spraying and wiping surfaces with antibacterial spray is also crucial, as well as cleaning toilets or buckets that may have been used for bouts of diarrhoea or vomiting. Washing bedding, towels, clothing, and any other items that may have come into contact with the germs will also keep your home that bit safer.
Tonsillitis
Infections and inflammation in the tonsils, found at the back of the throat, are commonly known as tonsillitis. There might also be white pus present, that can be seen when looking at your throat in a mirror. While it used to be common practice to remove the tonsils, now doctors prefer to avoid doing this if possible, due to the complications that can arise from surgery. Instead, if you have tonsillitis, you will be given antibiotics. During this time, it is important that you drink lots of water, and avoid kissing others, as well as covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze. Avoid sharing glasses or other utensils as well, and wash them thoroughly after use, to help prevent the spread.
While you can never completely eliminate the risk of infection in your home, you can take steps to reduce the chances of them occurring in the first place. Good cleaning practices, both in the home and for the people within it, can really make a big difference.
