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Protesters scaled the Darlington Farmers Auction Mart in the early hours with huge banners condemning farming and agriculture Animal rights protestors have scaled the roof of a major meat industry event - leading to chaos. The activists climbed onto the the building where a major beef industry event will be held today. The protesters scaled the Darlington Farmers Auction Mart (DFAM) in the early hours with huge banners condemning farming and agriculture. The National Beef Association (NBA) 2022 Expo is the largest of its kind in the UK - with industry leaders, DEFRA representatives and 5,000 beef farmers expected to attend over the weekend. The stunt has already caused chaos - with one activist hospitalised with a suspected broken finger having been allegedly assaulted by farmers on the roof. A spokesperson for Animal Justice Project said: "Climbers have been up there for hours and are determined to stay there to make their message heard. Animals have rights and current farming practices infringe on these day in, day out within the dairy, meat and egg industries. "Today is not a celebration of the 'Best of British', but a farming event that glorifies the exploitation and killing of animals. An industry that has yet to be held accountable." As attendees of the event arrive at DFAM today they will see 15m banners that read 'end animal agriculture’ and ‘farming violates the rights of animals’. The protesters say they plan on staying up there indefinitely despite chaos after one was taken to hospital. An Animal Justice Project spokesperson said their aim is not to be po[CENSORED]r, but to advocate for the rights of animals." They added: "Our message to the agricultural sector is that there is no future in animal farming”. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/animal-rights-protestors-cause-chaos-7139397

Who doesn't love a good origin story, right? If you would've told us that Property Brothers star Jonathan Scott and New Girl actress Zooey Deschanel were destined to meet while singing karaoke, we'd call you crazy. But, we stand corrected because the dynamic duo have been going strong ever since and just took fans on a trip down memory lane. Let's throw it back to August 2019. Jonathan, 43, and Zooey, 41, were single and invited to film an episode of Jame Corden's Carpool Karaoke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLdizYZYH14 The two were immediately smitten with each other and even Jonathan admitted that his heavy flirting with Zooey was edited out of the episode by producers. Fast-forward to 2022 and the two are back where it all started. Jonathan posted this adorable Instagram of the two with the caption, "Back to where it all started with my partner in crime @zooeydeschanel @latelateshow @carpoolkaraoke." The duo did a little dance for the camera while Eminem "Without Me" played in the background. We wouldn't suggest either going on Dancing With the Stars, but we'll let the dance moves slide this time since they're so adorable! The shoulder shimmies sure didn't stop fans from flooding the TV star's comments either. he two are making an anticipated return to the driver and passenger seat in the upcoming season of Carpool Karaoke: The Series on Apple TV+. The fifth season has one heck of a lineup that includes Zooey and Jonathan (of course), TikTok star Charli D 'Amelio, the cast of Hulu's The White Lotus and more. Although, the series originated on James Corden's late night show, the Apple TV+ version doesn't feature the host, but instead groups different celebrities together for a ride like no other. https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/entertainment-celebrity/fans-flip-after-jonathan-scott-and-zooey-deschanel-share-major-news-on-instagram/ar-AAXPBh3?ocid=BingNewsSearch

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Today’s digital businesses run on data, and persistent storage of that data is at the heart of most service offerings. Yet many service providers spend unnecessary resources mitigating challenges that fundamentally stem from storage, including efficiency, integration in multi-tenant scenarios and the ability to align investment to incoming revenue while predictably managing growth. Storage platforms need to deliver the performance, availability, scalability, reliability, efficiency, and simplicity that service providers need, with consumption models that meet the financial needs of today’s service providers. Storage solutions are central to service providers’ ability to deliver the ‘Everything as a Service’ (XaaS) model that has become ubiquitous today. As such, storage is typically one of the largest categories of infrastructure costs for shared services offerings, and choosing the right solution is imperative. Even more importantly, beyond the direct costs, the indirect costs of poor storage decisions can add up to major impacts on the ability to scale a service, operational manpower needs, OPEX costs, and drive new revenue and margin opportunities. Key for service providers is the ability to leverage the performance scalability that allows them to bring together many diverse applications and workloads, therefore storage consolidation or dense storage workload consolidation is essential for reducing costs. These lower costs are realised through increased infrastructure densities, ease of management, lower energy and floor space consumption, as well as many secondary benefits. Studies show that consolidating storage can significantly reduce the total cost of ownership. Importantly, service providers need a solution that can leverage the benefits of storage consolidation without compromising availability and performance. This requires an architecture that is built around this notion of scale, multi-tenant, high-performance platforms, together with intelligent software and a 100% data availability guarantee to ensure no compromise on performance, availability, manageability, cyber resilience, or cost when consolidating. Simplicity and flexibility are key When operating at petabyte scale, as service providers typically do, manual administration tasks such as performance tuning are simply not feasible. It is important for the storage platform to offer a ‘set it and forget it’ approach, where the system itself handles these types of tasks automatically and autonomously via intelligent software with algorithms that consistently deliver the performance required by the applications without any administrative effort. Furthermore, service providers cannot afford to wait for additional capacity to be delivered and installed when they need to scale rapidly. It is necessary for the storage platform to have all the anticipated storage capacity installed on the data centre floor, ready to be consumed when required. However, instead of the traditional CAPEX model where they are required to purchase and pay for all this capacity upfront, there are different consumption models available that are more aligned with service provider business models. Storage and consumption on demand In today’s increasingly complex and competitive business landscape, service providers should be focussing on business innovation and growth, rather than worrying about infrastructure. An elastic pricing purchasing model that allows them to pay for storage with a combination of CAPEX (base capacity) and OPEX (burst capacity) assists in uncertain market conditions by providing flexibility and predictable costs. This means that service providers can depend upon budget constraints and business needs, self-provision additional base capacity or burst capacity, and convert burst capacity to base capacity at any time without fees or penalties to balance the conflicting demands for flexibility and cost-effectiveness. Service providers that want to do away entirely with having to acquire or configure storage infrastructure up to multi-petabyte scale, can benefit from a pure OPEX based consumption model. This will encompass an all-inclusive subscription and pay-as-you-go scalability (up or down), hardware included for life, a 100% data availability guarantee, built-in cyber resilience, and an end to the risks and costs associated with data migrations. This model includes the unmatched performance, availability, and security of on-premises storage, with a cloud-like consumption model, while the storage vendor manages the system, and the service provider simply manages the data. A competitive market Service providers that are trying to compete effectively against hyperscale vendors face strategic questions about how they will sustainably drive profit and revenue. Storage choices play a significant role in those decisions that extend beyond the simple total cost of ownership of the storage system itself. Storage platforms should be uniquely designed to maximise key values relevant to the service provider community, including efficiency, scalability, availability, cyber resilience, and comprehensive integration. When those technical advantages are paired with flexible business models, the result is a compelling value that enables service providers to align investment models with client revenue and reach new clients. With the right solution, service providers can stop worrying about storage infrastructure and shift resources toward innovation. https://www.itnewsafrica.com/2022/05/why-storage-lies-at-the-heart-of-effective-xaas-delivery/

Leading Software company Infosys has decided to raise its CEO and MD Salil Parekh's salary to Rs 71 crore per annum after announcing a sharp hike of 43%, according to reports. The surge in the salary of Salil Parekh's has come because of stock incentives awarded in the last financial year 2021 along with a boost in the performance-based variable pay. The surge in the salary of Salil Parekh's has come because of stock incentives awarded in the last financial year 2021 along with a boost in the performance-based variable pay. Earlier, Parekh took home approximately Rs 49.7 crore in the 2020-21 and Rs 34.27 crore in 2019-20 financial year. According to the annual report, the CEO's compensation for the current financial year 2021-22 includes Rs 38 lakhs retiral benefits, Rs 5.69 crore base salary, Rs 12.62 crore variable income, and Rs 52.33 crore in perquisites as a result of the stock option exercised. With today's revision in salary of Salil Parekh he will be counted among one of the highest paid executives in India. Meanwhile, Infosys justified the sharp rise in the salary and cited the company's strong growth in the recent years. The company provided a detailed explanation of the salary hike in its annual report released today on why the CEO rewarded so substantially. https://www.goodreturns.in/news/this-software-company-s-ceo-salary-jumps-to-rs-71-crore-per-annum-after-43-hike-1250575.html

It's been a tough few years for Berlin-based femtech hardware startup Inne, which came out of stealth R&D in the fall of 2019, shortly before COVID-19 hit Europe. By January 2020, founder and CEO Eirini Rapti tells us she was busy making final inspections ahead of the launch of its debut product -- a connected device it calls a "minilab" for at-home, saliva-based hormone testing to support fertility and cycle tracking -- but then, in just a few weeks, the region was plunged into lockdown and everything changed. Hardware startups are rarely smooth sailing at the best of times. But the coronavirus pandemic created a cascade of new challenges for Rapti and her team around supply chain and logistics -- upsetting their careful calculations on unit economics. The pandemic also called a halt to a major piece of research work the startup had lined up with a U.S. university to study its hormone-tracking method for a key contraceptive use case -- a product it had intended to prioritize but could not bring to market ahead of the study, which is required to gain regulatory approval. In a matter of weeks, Inne was forced to freeze its big launch as it tried to figure out how best to move forward -- and, indeed, whether it should launch the product at all in such a challenging reconfigured environment. "Due to COVID-19 we've had to really shift around our plans," says Rapti, talking to TechCrunch via video chat. "We had loads of unpredicted supply chain issues … There were so many [CENSORED]ups that came up with COVID-19! It's unbelievable what happened. "I remember our last interview [in October 2019], I was super optimistic -- I'm still very optimistic -- sort of really looking forward to get all of our tech out to the world. We were setting up our production line when I spoke to you. We had John Hopkins [research university] agreeing to our contraceptive study. Like, the world was my oyster … And then I came back from a last inspection of the goods coming off the production line in January 2020 and we were hearing about what was happening in China but we were not really conscious of it and then we were so busy with pre-sales and whatever. "And then of course a month later we didn't know if we were going to get raw materials from China. We didn't know if the factories that were working within Europe were going to even be able to have people in the factory. " The start of the planned contraception study also kept being postponed, as the U.S. research institution which had agreed to conduct it, pre-pandemic, understandably prioritized work related to COVID-19 itself. The upshot for Inne was a shock freeze on its best laid plans -- plans Rapti had been working toward since 2017 when she founded the business and kicked off R&D to get the at-home hormone testing product to market. "2020 for me started on this big high -- we had our final products, we got our approval [to sell the device in Europe], we are launching pre-sales. I think we had 200 people buy the product and then we kind of had to stop because we didn't know if we were even able to deliver these 200 … This is how bad it was," she adds. As well as having shelled out to set up a production line it suddenly had to suspend, Inne had also doubled the size of its team to prepare for scaling. But suddenly the message from the investment world was 'slow everything down,' recounts Rapti. "So I was like why didn't you tell me two months ago?! … My whole strategy came crumbling down." The supply chain and logistics disruption -- some of which has lingered even while pandemic lockdowns have eased -- also forced Inne to concentrate most of its effort on the German market in Europe -- "because we wanted to contain, as much as possible, the logistical nightmare," as she puts it. "Electronic chip shortages of course are affecting everyone … but it's also as simple as backlog on logistics," she explains, discussing how COVID-19 has dialled up difficulties for the fledgling hardware business. "Your shipments take longer or your air freight is much more expensive and all of a sudden your price per unit becomes really high -- and for a small company like us, for a startup, if you cannot demonstrate your unit economics and your growth what can you demonstrate? And quite frankly I was sitting there for a few months -- and I think it was the first time I froze in my career where I felt I have no idea what I will be able to show in the next six months!" By summer 2020, Rapti was facing a big decision over how to move forward while the business was still mired in uncertainties around supply chain resilience and with no new date on when it would be able to launch contraception as it still hadn't found a replacement partner to do the study. https://www.yahoo.com/news/femtech-startup-inne-rebooted-hardware-103913702.html

Today the world is witnessing that India means business and this is the achievement of not only the government but also the youth and graduates from institutions like ISB, he said. India is the fastest growing economy among the G-20 nations, besides boasting of several other achievements including in the start-up environment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday. Addressing graduating students of the Indian School of Business (ISB) here, Modi said last year the country attracted record amount of Foreign Direct Investments. "Today, India is the fastest developing economy in G-20. India is in the second position when it comes to internet users. India is in second position in global retail index. India has the third largest start-up ecosystem in the world. There are several such achievements," Modi said. Today the world is witnessing that India means business and this is the achievement of not only the government but also the youth and graduates from institutions like ISB, he further said. He said the "Reform, Perform, Transform" mantra redefined the governance of the country. India has sent Covid-19 vaccine to over 100 countries, he said while speaking on the viral pandemic. https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/india-fastest-growing-economy-among-g-20-nations-pm-modi-at-isb-122052600896_1.html

A recent investigation has revealed the shocking conditions animals are exposed to at an Aldi chicken supplier. An undercover investigator for Mercy for Animals, a non-profit animal protection charity, captured the footage at a contract farm for the supermarket chain. This comes soon after the charity exposed the names of major retailers that are lagging behind in their efforts to address welfare issues associated with chickens raised for meat. Aldi is among the companies that ranked the lowest for standard practices in the chicken industry. Animal cruelty on chicken farms The hidden-camera footage shows tens of thousands of chickens packed into overcrowded sheds, forced to live in waste-soaked litter for weeks. The investigator also documented countless birds, including day-old chicks, suffering from severe open wounds, twisted necks and beaks, and other serious injuries. Many of these conditions arise from the way chickens are routinely bred to grow unnaturally large over a short space of time. This inflicts a huge amount of physical and mental stress on the birds. In the hard-hitting video, workers are seen hurling sick and injured live birds into buckets to die. Some were crushed under the weight of corpses piled on top of them. In light of the footage, Mercy for Animals is calling on Aldi to adopt meaningful animal welfare standards for all its chicken suppliers. The charity is urging Aldi to undertake the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), which requires extra space, litter, and lighting, as well as environmental enrichments. As a way for individuals to take action, Mercy for Animals encourages eliminating animal products altogether. It states on its Aldi Uncovered website: “We can end this cruel, unsustainable system. By choosing plant-based foods, we can build a food system that is good for animals, people, and our planet.” https://plantbasednews.org/culture/ethics/investigation-exposes-animal-cruelty-aldi-supply-chain/

We increasingly live in enclaves. We live our lives inside digital ecosystems configured by the collection and analysis of our personal data. Most of us, in one way or another, rely on Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon and other digital platforms to live our lives nowadays. The business models of the tech firms that run these platforms are designed to lock us into their enclaves, to rely upon their services and products and to hand over our personal data to build their algorithms. Consequently, they want us to stay in their enclaves. If we do leave, they’ve found ways to digitally stalk us around the rest of the web through cookies, application programming interfaces and other plugins. And this is where the federal government’s new Online News Act comes in. The act is an attempt to address the consequences of this individual retreat into our respective enclaves. The growth of platforms like Facebook and Twitter has led to a precipitous fall in the news media’s advertising revenues. The big tech firms that run sites like Facebook and Google receive 75 to 80 per cent of online advertising revenues and 50 per cent of total advertising revenues in Canada. This market concentration has seen a corresponding shrinking in the advertising income received by Canada’s news media, threatening their survival, as pointed out by Bob Cox, former president of News Media Canada. Big tech has seized control of the “assets” that used to underpin advertising in news media: the viewers, readers and users. Google and Facebook, for example, are now key intermediaries in online advertising, able to charge significant “middlemen” fees when auctioning off online advertising space, thereby reducing the money that news media get from ads. Moreover, big tech’s market power has had a significant impact on referrals to news media sites, since small changes in the algorithms of search engines or news feeds can significantly change online traffic. Some commentators, like Michael Geist from Ottawa University, argue that the Online News Act represents a self-serving approach to dealing with big tech. For Geist, news media simply want a greater share of the digital advertising revenues they lost over the last decade or so, but it’s not clear what unintended and negative consequences could result. So, does it make sense for news media to get a bigger slice of the big tech advertising pie? Perhaps, but it might not solve anything. The biggest issue is that the big tech digital advertising model is not particularly healthy. News media may simply be setting themselves up for more grief in the medium and long term. To understand this requires an appreciation of how digital advertising works. And, increasingly, how it’s not working – in fact it’s creating a whole series of problems of its own. https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/may-2022/big-tech-news-ad-troubles/

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Last February, Nintendo announced that it would be shutting down the eShop supporting the 3DS and Wii U consoles as of March 2023, but the closure would actually be rolled out in stages. While the store itself will remain in operation for the next little while, today is the last day you’ll be able to add funds for either your Wii U or 3DS wallets. "As of May 23, 2022, it will no longer be possible to use a credit card to add funds to an account in Nintendo eShop on Wii U or the Nintendo 3DS family of systems," reads Nintendo’s Q&A page for the upcoming closure. The site notes that you can still fund your eShop wallet using Nintendo eShop Cards until August 29, at which point those too will stop working. Game codes will remain redeemable until March 2023. After that, the eShop disappears forever, but your money doesn’t have to disappear along with it. Nintendo notes that you can link your Network Nintendo ID wallet (which was used for the Wii U and 3DS) with your Nintendo Account Wallet (which is used for the Switch) in order to continue making purchases on the Wii U and 3DS until March 23. After that date, whatever balance you had remaining on the Wii U and 3DS wallet will only be available to make purchases on the Switch. Nintendo's announcement to close the Wii U and 3DS eShops was met with condemnation by both fans and video game historians, who accused Nintendo of backing lobbies which prevent video game preservation. A former Nintendo of America employee also revealed that the company had been looking at strategies to shut down the eShop since 2014, giving its consoles at least 10 years of full operation. Nintendo claims that user libraries for the Wii U and 3DS will still be available for some time to come, which is why one indie developer was rushing to get their games released on the discontinued consoles. Seven Silver Falls games were rushed onto the Wii U and 3DS due to "significant fan demand," with Sungrand Studios partnering with Nintendo "as a way to celebrate those consoles and the eShop." https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/wii-u-and-3ds-eshops-will-stop-accepting-new-funds-today/ar-AAXCuI7?ocid=BingNewsSearch&cvid=e87793a64d2f437ab24f3f919e29a135#image=1

By the end of March 2022, Sony announced a brand new PlayStation (PS) Plus membership for PS gamers around the world. It was also a good thing to know that Malaysia is part of the wave with a reasonable starting monthly fee. PS Malaysian gamers don't need to wait any longer. After two months, the revamped PS Plus has launched in Malaysia, as well as our neighbours Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and more. To the uninitiated, the PS Plus now offers three membership tiers - PS Plus Essential, PS Plus Extra, and PS Plus Deluxe for the Malaysian market. To celebrate the launch, Sony is pleased to launch Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, NBA 2K22, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Returnal for Extra and Premium/Deluxe members. On top of that, there are old school classics too such as Ape Escape, Super Stardust Portable, Syphon Filter, Tekken2, and much more. Below is a recap of what each membership tier offers: PlayStation Plus Essential Provides the same benefits that PlayStation Plus members are getting today, such as: Two monthly downloadable games Exclusive discounts Cloud storage for saved games Online multiplayer access There are no changes for existing PlayStation Plus members in this tier The price* for PlayStation Plus Essential remains the same as the current price for PlayStation Plus RM29 monthly, RM69 quarterly or RM159 yearly PlayStation Plus Extra Provides all the benefits from the Essential tier Adds a catalogue of up to 400* of the most enjoyable PS4 and PS5 games – including blockbuster hits from our PlayStation Studios catalogue and third-party partners. Games in the Extra tier are downloadable for play RM44 monthly, RM114 quarterly or RM269 yearly PlayStation Plus Deluxe Original PlayStation, PSP, PS4 and PS5 games are available for download to play. Remastered or remake versions of PS2 and PS3 games will also be downloadable for play on PS4 and PS5 consoles. RM50 monthly, RM130 quarterly or RM309 yearly To know more about the PS Plus membership tiers, you can visit the PS Blog right here and scroll down to the FAQs section. GLHF, stay tuned for more trending tech news at TechNave.com. https://technave.com/gadget/The-all-new-PlayStation-Plus-officially-launches-in-Malaysia-today-starting-from-RM29-per-month-30157.html

Quad nations Australia, India, Japan and the United States are set to deepen cybersecurity cooperation as they meet in Tokyo today. The Quad Cybersecurity Partnership seeks to build resilience across the four countries in response to cybersecurity vulnerabilities and cyber threats. Its areas of focus are critical-infrastructure protection, led by Australia; supply-chain resilience and security, led by India; workforce development and talent, led by Japan; and software security standards, led by the United States. It works to prevent cyber incidents, prepare national and international capabilities for potential cyber incidents, and/or respond quickly and effectively to a cyber incident, when or should one occur. Going forward, the partnership will strengthen information-sharing among Quad country Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT), including exchanges on lessons learned and best practices. The Quad will also work to improve software and Managed Service Provider (MSP) security by coordinating cybersecurity standards for Quad governments’ procurement of software. Quad partners will launch a Cybersecurity Day campaign, open to countries across the Indo-Pacific and beyond, as part of continuing efforts to strengthen cybersecurity awareness and action. This program will provide basic cybersecurity information and training to the most vulnerable sectors of our countries and regions, including schoolchildren, small businesses, and the elderly. Quad partners will lead this campaign in partnership with industry, non-profits, academia, and communities to maximize its effectiveness and reach. Additionally, through a new Memorandum of Cooperation on 5G Supplier Diversification and Open RAN, the Quad will cooperate on technical exchanges and testbed activity to advance interoperability and telecommunications cybersecurity. https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/cybersecurity/cybersecurity-cooperation-on-the-tokyo-summit-agenda/

Vultr, the cloud platform that specializes in providing access to basic infrastructure services at a relatively low cost, today announced the launch of Vultr Talon, a new service that will offer developers access to virtualized GPUs, starting with Nvidia's A100 Tensor Core GPU, with prices as low as $0.134/hour (or $90/month) for access to a twentieth of the compute power of an A100. Typically, when you need access to a high-end GPU for machine learning and similar use cases, the smallest unit you can buy is access to the entire GPU. On the CPU side of things, buying just a slice of CPU power is standard, but until now, that just wasn't possible for GPUs, even though for many use cases, like inferencing, you would only need access to a fraction of the GPU's compute power. Vultr argues that its platform is the first to offer fractional access to these high-end GPUs. The service is powered by the Nvidia AI Enterprise software suite and Vultr CEO J.J. Kardwell, who joined the company in late 2020, believes that this is another point in his service's favor. "If you think about the way that the big clouds deploy, they want to buy GPU hardware and then push their own stack, whereas we partnered very closely with Nvidia to deliver not just the GPU itself but the Nvidia AI Enterprise software stack and the full set of libraries," he said. "The best way to get the most out of the GPU -- the physical GPUs -- is through that Nvidia software stack -- and that's a very, very different approach." The company, which also recently launched its managed Kubernetes platform into general availability, always remained a bit under the media radar -- and much of that was by design. It never raised a lot of outside funding since its launch in 2014 and mostly relied on word of mouth to grow to $125 million ARR today, as Kardwell told me. That's the way the company's founder David Aninowsky, who is now its executive chairman, wanted to build Vultr. But as the company is now reaching this scale -- and likely thinking about an IPO at some point in the future -- the team is clearly looking to elevate its profile a bit more. "We really believe we're doing more than anyone to democratize access to cloud computing globally. And as we seek to do that, we think it's important that people understand that mission," he explained. The A100 is now available in Vultr's New Jersey data center, with other locations following in the next few weeks. The company also tells me that it will add other Nvidia GPUs to its lineup later this year. https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/vultr-now-let-rent-share-120041413.html

Sinn Fein's leaders accused the Tories of pandering to the DUP ahead of a rare visit to Westminster today, in which they will seek to break the political deadlock gripping Northern Ireland. Party president Mary Lou McDonald and vice president Michelle O'Neill will visit Parliament later to meet with politicians in their most high profile visit to the capital in years. The republican party has seven MPs, but they refuse to take their seats because it involves swearing their allegiance to the Queen. The last high profile visit by party leaders to Parliament was in 2015 when Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness met with then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Ms McDonald was also among those who visited on that occasion, and today she told Good Morning Britain she expected a referendum on Irish unification to take place within a decade. The Sinn Fein president confirmed that her party has invited all MPs and members of the House of Lords to attend a briefing session at Westminster tonight for a 'conversation about change, about what's happening in Ireland, about the (Northern Ireland) protocol and the absolute urgency and necessity to get the Executive up and running'. It is understood no Government ministers are planning to attend. The Democratic Unionist Party collapsed the power-sharing executive in February in protest at the Northern Ireland Protocol of Boris Johnson's Brexit deal with the EU, which introduced customs checks between Ulster and Britain. And the hardliners have refused to reconvene it post election, now they are no longer the largest party. Ms O'Neill told the BBC: 'The British government needs to stop pandering to the DUP. 'The DUP's voice does not reflect the wider view at home. And the reality is that the Protocol is working.' 'It is only Boris Johnson and the DUP, in their approach, that are the outlier here.' Ms O'Neill leads the largest party at Stormont following the election earlier this month, the first time a nationalist party has come out on top. But she cannot form a devolved government at Stormont as First Minister without the DUP nominating a Deputy First Minister. She also claimed today she does not get 'too hung up' on what she calls Northern Ireland. She usually tries to refer instead to the 'North of Ireland' but referred to 'Northern Ireland' in the Assembly earlier this month, said people should be 'a bit relaxed about those things'. Asked if she could refer to it as Northern Ireland, she said: 'Yes, and I have done in the past week. 'And I think it's important that also if the democratic outcome of the election is respected I would be the First Minister of the Northern Ireland Executive. 'So I think we shouldn't get hung up on those things. It's the beauty of the Good Friday Agreement - British, Irish or both or neither. 'So I think that that's important. I think we should be a bit relaxed about those things.' https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/sinn-fein-leaders-to-meet-tory-mps-in-london-today-over-northern-ireland-political-stalemate/ar-AAXETBv?ocid=BingNewsSearch

Scotland's “worst ever” badger baiter has been caged for six months - but animal cruelty investigators claim he should have been given up to five years in jail. Callum Muir, 25 used three dogs to fight animals like badgers and foxes, which usually ended in the wild animals dying in agony after desperately battling for their lives. Videos showed Muir laughing as animals were slaughtered and as an accomplice jumped on the head of one fox. His own dogs - terrier Pip, lurcher Bella and bull lurcher Mig - also suffered terrible injuries and he failed to get any vet help for them. At Ayr Sheriff Court, Muir was given just six months but Sheriff Siobhan Connelly said that his crimes were at the most serious end of the spectrum. She admitted he could have faced a far longer sentence if the Crown had decided to take the case to a higher court. She said: “The evidence of veterinary surgeons was that the dogs had injuries consistent with animal fights and they would have suffered considerably as a result. “The other animals would have suffered violent and traumatic deaths. “You must have known the harm and pain and suffering being caused to these animals." The maximum sentence at summary level is 12 months. The sheriff said she would have given him nine months, taking into account his age, if he had not tendered a guilty plea. Evidence showed of at least none incidents of animals being forced to fight over six months. An inspector from SSPCA’s Special Investigations Unit said the hoped for a far more severe sentence. It is understood that investigators were dismayed that the case was only taken forward at summary level - indicating that the Crown did not reckon it was serious enough to go higher. He said: “Given the sheer level of suffering endured by Muir’s dogs, countless wild animals and the depravity of the videos and images he owned, we are disappointed he has not received a longer jail sentence. “New legislation has now come into effect which means offenders can receive up to five year sentences for animal welfare crimes. We’ve been involved in thousands of criminal cases and this ranks up there as one of the worst.” The inspector, who has worked on hundreds of cases, said Muir’s catalogue of “trophy” videos and photographs was the worst he’d encountered. The inspector said: “The evidence we found at Mr. Muir’s home address was consistent with what you’d typically find when someone is heavily involved in animal fighting. All three of his dogs had significant injuries across their faces. Pip and Bella, the two older dogs, had injuries across their neck and legs. Both dogs had several missing teeth as a result of the fights they’d been in, and the lack of appropriate veterinary treatment would have made the suffering even worse. “Mig had some scarring to her muzzle and legs but as she was a much larger, stronger and younger dog it’s likely she’d been able to avoid serious injury up to this point.” The SIU recovered a number of video and images in Muir’s possession showing dogs, including his own pets, fighting wild animals. The inspector earlier said: “In my line of work you see a lot of stomach churning examples of animal cruelty, but the videos and images relating to this case are among the worst I’ve ever seen. “The complete disregard for the wellbeing of the dogs and wild animals in the videos is appalling. In many of them, Mr. Muir can be heard encouraging his dogs to attack wild animals as they scream in pain. “In one clip, he laughs as a fox’s skin is torn away and they are ripped in half by dogs. In another, two of his dogs attack a fox whilst a man stamps on its head as Muir laughs.” All three dogs were signed over in to the care of the Scottish SPCA and have since found new homes. In April 2021 the Scottish SPCA received intel that Muir was using dogs in animal fights. On 4 May, the Scottish SPCA special investigations unit (SIU) executed a warrant at his home address and seized three dogs with injuries which suggested they had been involved in multiple fights. At the property, there was evidence that he was self-treating his dog’s injuries, which most individuals who are involved in animal fighting will do to avoid the authorities being alerted. The SIU found several items associated with animal fighting, including locator collars which are used to track dogs when they are underground in badger setts. Officers also discovered nets for catching wild animals when they bolt from their den. This evidence was analysed at Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) and fox and badger DNA was found. The charity worked closely with Dr Lucy Webster from the Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA), and the League Against Cruel Sports throughout the investigation. Robbie Marsland, Director of the League Against Cruel Sports Scotland said: “The League is pleased to have played a part in bringing Callum Muir, a horrific animal abuser to justice, and we commend the Scottish SPCA for such a comprehensive investigation which was absolutely critical in bringing about today’s result.” https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/scotlands-worst-badger-baiter-who-filmed-his-dogs-ripping-wild-animals-apart-in-sickening-videos-jailed/ar-AAXEpSE?ocid=BingNewsSearch

Chris Stirewalt, the former Fox News political analyst pushed out after the 2020 presidential election, has landed at NewsNation. The Nexstar Media Group-owned cable channel is announcing Tuesday that Stirewalt will serve as its political editor, the same title he held at Fox News. Stirewalt will have a key role in the Chicago-based NewsNation’s expansion of its Washington coverage. Nexstar recently acquired the Hill, a digital political news outlet, and plans to use it as the basis of a new NewsNation program later this year. “Chris is a fiercely intelligent and fair journalist who is going to deliver an enormous value to our viewers,” said Michael Corn, president of news programming for NewsNation. The company also hired veteran columnist George Will as a contributor and recently entered a partnership with Decision Desk HQ, which will provide election and polling data and for the upcoming 2022 midterm primaries and general election. When Stirewalt was fired from Fox News in Jan. 2021, he was told by the company that it was part of a restructuring. But his exit was largely seen as a response to the backlash the conservative-leaning outlet faced over its early call of Arizona for then-candidate Joe Biden on the night of the 2020 Presidential election. Stirewalt was part of the election decision desk that projected the winner of Arizona and its 11 electoral votes for Biden just hours after the polls closed on election night. Donald Trump’s campaign protested the call — complaining directly to Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch. Fox News never wavered on the call, which was confirmed by the other major networks nine days later. But it was widely believed inside Fox News that some loyal viewers abandoned the network in anger over the decision. “Partisan-oriented news outlets are not a natural home for dispassionate election forecasting,” Stirewalt said in an interview. “The problem for me at Fox was the audience did not like what I had to say. It wasn’t good news to them, and it seemed partisan to them.” Fox News, the longtime ratings leader in cable news, briefly fell into third place behind CNN and MSNBC in the months after the 2020 election. It quickly bounced back into first and in many weeks, is the most-watched cable network in any genre. At Fox News, Stirewalt helped coordinate political coverage and authored a daily newsletter, Fox News Halftime Report. He also co-hosted the podcast, “I’ll Tell You What,” with “The Five” co-host Dana Perino. He was also part of the network’s polling unit, which is well-known for its editorial independence. Since departing Fox News, Stirewalt has been a contributor to the newsletter the Dispatch and appeared as a guest analyst on NewsNation. He also has a book coming out this summer called “Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back,” published by Hachette. NewsNation was launched in 2020 with the intent of being an unbiased alternative to the increasing amount of opinion programming airing on established cable news networks such as Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. The channel’s positioning as a nonpartisan outlet was questioned early on, largely due to the presence of former Fox News executive Bill Shine as a consultant. But NewsNation has hired executives and producers from a wide range of outlets and has been cited by several media watchdog organizations for its lack of bias. “These people are sincere when they say they can make fairness pay,” Stirewalt said. “I’d be a jerk to say that’s what’s wrong with the American news media today and not be part of the solution.” Although its audience is slowly growing, NewsNation is challenged in attracting viewers. The channel has drama and comedy series repeats in many hours of the day due to leftover contractual obligations from its days as WGN America, a general entertainment network. The channel, which typically carries 9 hours of news programming a day, is still a year away from being a 24-hour service. According to Nielsen data for the week of May 9 to 15, NewsNation averaged 59,000 viewers in prime-time. But executives at Nexstar, which had record revenues in the first quarter of 2022 thanks to its TV station business, have stressed their long-term commitment to NewsNation. The company has cited the value of live news and sports to pay TV consumers, as viewers of scripted films and shows turn to online streaming. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2022-05-24/former-fox-news-political-analyst-chris-stirewalt-joins-nexstars-newsnation

lol, bees don't attack people out of nowhere, they just sting you if you bother them, they are not wasps that attack you whether they feel like it or not.