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MP Margaret Ferrier should be suspended from the Commons for 30 days for breaching Covid rules, the standards committee has recommended. The suspension would likely lead to a by-election in her Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency if imposed. Ferrier spoke in Parliament in September 2020 while awaiting the results of a Covid test. She then took the train home to Glasgow after being told she had tested positive. She lost the SNP whip and has since pleaded guilty to breaching Covid rules. She was sentenced to carry out 270 hours of community service. The charge stated that she had failed to self-isolate and had "exposed people to risk of infection, illness and death". Who is Margaret Ferrier? MP Margaret Ferrier faces Parliament probe MP who exposed public to Covid must do unpaid work Covid MP says she behaved 'out of character' MPs will vote on whether or not to follow the recommendations of the committee - and would generally back its suggested punishment. Any MP suspended from the Commons for at least 10 days can be recalled and a by-election held if at least 10% of the registered voters in their constituency sign a petition calling for it to happen. Labour would have high hopes of winning any by-election in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency. Ferrier had a majority of 5,230 at the last general election when she won it for the SNP, with Labour finishing second. She has been sitting in the Commons as an independent MP since losing the SNP whip. The parliamentary commissioner for standards, Daniel Greenberg, began an investigation into her conduct on 12 October following Ferrier's self-referral. He concluded that she had put her own personal interest ahead of the public interest by not immediately self-isolating in London, and had therefore caused "possible risk of harm to health and life for people she came into contact with". The commissioner also said her actions had "caused significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole, and of its members generally" and noted that people in many other walks of life would have been sacked for a similar breach of the lockdown rules. 'Indication of remorse' Ferrier told the commissioner her self-referral was "an open acceptance" and an "indication of remorse" that she had brought Parliament into disrepute. But she maintains that she did not put her personal interest above that of the public. Glasgow Sheriff Court was told last August that she had taken a Covid test on Saturday 26 September 2020 because she had a "tickly throat". While awaiting her results, she went to church on the Sunday and gave a reading to the congregation, and later spent more than two hours in a bar in Prestwick, Ayrshire. She then travelled to London by train - which had 183 passengers on board - on the Monday and spoke in the Commons later that day before finding out a short time later that she had tested positive for the virus. Ferrier wore a face mask in the Commons, and after speaking in the chamber at about 19:30 had sat at a table with DUP MP Jim Shannon, where they conversed for 20 minutes. The positive result from the test was delivered to her shortly after 20:00, by both text and email. The MP decided to get a train back to Glasgow the following day, fearing she would have to self-isolate in a London hotel room for two weeks. New SNP leader Humza Yousaf called on Ferrier to quit as an MP and said he would look forward to fighting a by-election in her constituency. He added: "We've said from day one that Margaret Ferrier should have stepped down because of her reckless action. "We'll take nothing for granted, we won't be complacent. We've got strong support in Rutherglen and right across that region but it will take hard work". Shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said said it was right that Parliament had "thrown the book" at Ferrier, and said the SNP still had questions to answer on what they knew and what they did at the time. "Ferrier should do the right thing and stand down as an MP. Her constituents deserve better and that means a by-election", he said. The recall process has only been used three times in the past. In the first instance - a petition against DUP MP Ian Paisley in 2018 - the 10% threshold was not met. However, it was met in the other two cases, against Labour MP Fiona Onasanya and Tory Chris Davies in 2019. Ms Onasanya did not contest the by-election in her seat, while Mr Davies stood in the by-election and lost. link: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-65123054

By comparing the few known bones of the sauropod Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum with its relatives, experts have extrapolated its tremendous neck length. The longest-necked dinosaur on record was a Jurassic beast with a 49.5-foot-long (15.1 meters) neck, a new study finds. That's more than six times the length of a giraffe's neck and about 10 feet (3 m) longer than the length of a school bus. This long-necked sauropod, known as Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum, lived about 162 million years ago during the Jurassic period in what is now the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwestern China, according to the study, published Wednesday (March 15) in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology(opens in new tab). "The long neck of Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum, like those of other sauropods, would have made the animal an efficient forager, able to graze on the huge volumes of browse necessary to fuel such a huge body before moving to the next vegetation-rich spot," study first author Andrew Moore(opens in new tab), a paleontologist at Stony Brook University in New York, told Live Science in an email. Researchers discovered M. sinocanadorum's fossils in 1987, but they didn't find much — only a jaw bone and some neck vertebrae and neck ribs. However, these were enough to tell paleontologists a lot about the long-dead dino. "All sauropods had long necks, but mamenchisaurids were standouts, with some of the most extreme neck proportions of anything in the history of terrestrial life," Moore said. After M. sinocanadorum, the next longest-necked dinosaur is Xinjiangtitan shanshanesis, a mamenchisaurid that boasts the most complete preserved neck on record at 43.9 feet (13.4 m), Moore said. Related: Long-necked dinosaurs probably had even longer necks than we thought Moore and his colleagues compared the few preserved vertebrae of M. sinocanadorum with the more complete skeletons of its closest sauropod relatives. "Our analyses make us fairly confident that Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum had 18 vertebrae in its neck, because close cousins known from more complete skeletons all have 18 cervical vertebrae," he said. "So focusing just on these close relatives with similar necks, we scaled up." M. sinocanadorum evolved to keep its tremendous neck lightweight but sturdy. A computed tomography (CT) scan of the dinosaur's vertebrae revealed that air made up as much as 77% of their volume, just like the light skeletons of today's storks. To protect its neck against injury, the sauropod had 13-foot-long (4 m) ribs in its neck that were built like rods and overlapped in bundles on both sides of the neck, much like those on other sauropods, the researchers found. It's unknown why M. sinocanadorum evolved to have such a supersize neck, but "perhaps it made them that much more efficient at foraging," Moore said. Sporting a long neck may have also helped the giant herbivore shed excess body heat by increasing its surface area, just like how elephants' enormous ears help keep them cool. The new study is "pretty exciting," Mike Taylor(opens in new tab), a research associate in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol in the U.K., told Live Science in an email. Taylor was not involved in the study but has studied sauropod necks. "It's funny to think that only a few decades ago, the longest known necks were those of Giraffatitan brancai, Mamenchisaurus hochuanensis and Barosaurus lentus (all about 9 m [29.5 feet]) and now we're seeing solid evidence for necks at least half as long again, maybe much longer," Taylor said. Besides the mechanical challenge of holding up such a lengthy neck, sauropods also had to "breathe through those necks, circulate blood through them, innervate them, pass ingested food down them, regulate their temperature, and much more," Taylor added. "They really are the most astonishing structures in the whole of biology." link: https://www.livescience.com/longest-dinosaur-neck-ever-stretched-further-than-a-school-bus-at-49-feet-long

The new Mustang leverages electronic controls to create an available pro-style hydraulic hand brake. Ford has announced that the 2024 Mustang will get an optional drift brake—basically a hydraulic hand brake for the rear wheels. To get one, Mustang buyers will need to choose the Performance Pack with its included Performance Electronic Parking Brake. We know that Formula Drift champion Vaughn Gittin, Jr., was involved in this feature's development; we don't know yet how much extra it will cost. As the seventh-generation Ford Mustang inches closer and closer to production, the trickle of information out of Ford has resumed. The Dearborn-based brand has just unveiled a braking feature that will help young would-be drifters hone their skills—in a closed course, of course. Ford calls it a drift brake, but it's essentially a hydraulic hand brake for the rear wheels. (We know there is a joke about a Mustang losing control in a crowd-pleasing drift; stand by.) The drift brake comes on Mustangs equipped with the Performance Pack that also includes the Performance Electronic Parking Brake (PEPB, henceforth). The PEPB looks like a normal hand lever for the parking brake, but it is actually an electronic switch. There is no cable connected to the rear brakes like you'd see in most late-model cars. Instead, its normal action activates an electronic parking brake. But when you activate the drift brake, it takes on another role. When turned on, the drift brake overrides the stability-controlled controller—the device that controls all the brakes when ABS or stability control is activated—to lock the rear brakes with hydraulic line pressure. Pro drift cars have a similar system, but theirs is a mechanical lever. Why not use the hand brake like you've been doing since the 1980s in a Fox-body? Well, you can, but old cable-actuated parking brakes use either shoes in the hat of a disc brake, a totally separate and tiny caliper, or they use a mechanical system on top of the hydraulic rear sliding calipers. None of those are intended to be pulled multiple times at speed. Ford released this video of pro drifters Vaughn Gittin, Jr., and Chelsea DeNofa discussing the ins and outs of tuning the drift brake. At one point you can hear "100 bar" mentioned. This is a direct reference to hydraulic line pressure, but we're guessing that's far from the maximum available to the drift brake because this isn't the first time Ford has used the magic of computers to emulate a hydraulic hand brake. Ford Performance formerly sold the Drift Stick for the Focus RS (RIP). Its similar function used a separate lever that bolted into the cabin. The Drift Stick, which is no longer available from Ford, delivered about 180 bar to the rear brake calipers of the Focus. Kudos to Ford for developing a fun feature targeted at the enthusiast market. We guarantee some will get it super wrong at first, so if you get a 2024 Mustang, just make sure you practice when no one is around before you try to show off for a crowd. There it is. link: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a43483349/2024-ford-mustang-drift-brake-specs-details/

‘Identify how you want to identify, and God bless you!’: Michael Bublé on fans, faith and fitting in The Canadian crooner has sold 75m records, but says he’ll never be cool. Not that he’s fussed. He discusses loneliness, love and the joy of live shows by Zoe Williams Mon 3 Apr 2023 06.00 BST 38 It was a Tuesday night in the packed O2 arena; later, Michael Bublé would pretend to think it was a Saturday and ask the audience to join him in thinking that – and we were all good for it. But he was yet to come on, a timer projected on to a billowing canopy showed 90 seconds, and a massive, as-yet invisible orchestra was playing some ominous strings. It reminded me of something the composer of the Succession theme said: “How can I make this feel as if something’s wrong?” That was exactly the sound he was going for, he told me the next day in the Café Royal, possibly the plushest hotel suite I’ve ever laid eyes on, let alone been allowed inside. “I said to [composer and arranger] Nicholas Jacobson-Larson, I need you to build an earthquake. I want people to think perhaps there’s something wrong.” But there’s nothing wrong, people. Michael’s arrived on stage. He’s singing Feeling Good with the gusto of a man who believes he’s speaking for every one of the 15,000-strong crowd, and really, who wouldn’t be? With his trademark tight black suit, a shtick that alternates between Puck and Lothario, a load of sweet, self-deprecating, easy wit, a total disregard for whether he’s cool or not, he puts you in a good mood – he cannot help it. He knows that his live shows are his secret weapon. “I will continue, one at a time, to turn people and get them on my side.” It’s more like thousands at a time, otherwise he would have struggled to sell 75m records. “Many times, unfortunately or fortunately for me, that doesn’t happen until someone decides purposely to buy a ticket or is accidentally dragged along to come and see me in a show. For so many years, that has been the turning point, from someone saying: ‘[CENSORED] you, bootleg Sinatra-wannabe! Who is this cheat?’ to: ‘OK, he’s real. We get it now.” It’s harsh, but you take the point: when his eponymous major-label debut was released in 2003, Bublé definitely wasn’t seen as cool and it took him ages to become at all famous. It was a circuitous route, via the Philippines and South Africa, the first places to really take to him. And he’s grateful for that now. “I was 28. I believe that fame can stunt your growth, I really do. So I wasn’t 21, I was 28. I was a man. OK, definitely not perfect. But I had become who I would become.” It was fine to be a pop star, but critics made careful distinctions between people who wrote their own material, had it written for them, or jumped on existing classics, which was and maybe still is viewed as a form of freeloading. So Michael Bublé, who writes his own songs, too (though it may take him six months a pop, he’s had a long career and 27 or 28 hits now), was hard to categorise, and that wasn’t cool either. “I used to feel quite lonely,” he says. “Not needy – it was just a very strange place to be within the business. I would show up on a red carpet and what was I? Was I a pop star? Was I a songwriter? Was I crooner? I never seemed to fit in with anyone. I would see all these acts that I admired and I never fit in. I still don’t fit in.” A critical snootiness settled over him, and it was fashionable to call him Mickey Bubbles, which was the name he used as a children’s entertainer – I was about to say “before he got famous”, but he still has a lot of time for children’s entertainment. There is as often as not a Muppet on his Christmas specials, and he does an amazing Kermit impression. But some combination of time, musicality and showmanship has burned off the cynicism and now, I think, if you saw him in the street and didn’t mob him, you would look like the killjoy. link?: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/apr/03/identify-how-you-want-to-identify-and-god-bless-you-michael-buble-on-faith-fans-and-fitting-in

By Will Vernon in Moscow & Paul Kirby in London BBC News Russian investigators have detained a woman in the hunt for the killers of a pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a blast at a St Petersburg cafe. Darya Trepova, 26, was earlier placed on the interior ministry's wanted list and her arrest was later confirmed by Russia's Investigative Committee. Russian media reported that Tatarsky was passed a statuette shortly before the blast, and there is speculation a device could have been hidden inside. Dozens of other people were wounded. Videos posted on social media showed an explosion and people wounded on the street. Russian authorities say they are investigating the attack in the centre of Russia's second biggest city as a "high-profile murder". Ms Trepova was detained hours after her mother and sister were brought in for questioning, Russian news agencies reported. She had been reportedly detained for a number of days after an anti-war protest in February last year. The cafe, Street Food Bar No 1 near the River Neva, was once owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin - who runs Russia's notorious Wagner mercenary group which has taken part in much of the fighting in Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Prigozhin paid tribute to Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, in a late-night video which he declared was filmed from the town hall in Bakhmut. He displayed a flag which he said had the words "in good memory of Vladlen Tatarsky." Tatarsky, a vocal supporter of Russia's war in Ukraine, was not a Russian official, nor a military officer. He was a well-known blogger with more than half a million followers and, like Prigozhin, had a criminal past. He was part of a pro-Kremlin military blogger community that has taken on a relatively high-profile role since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Tatarsky is among those who have gone so far as to criticise the Russian authorities, slamming the military and even President Vladimir Putin for setbacks on the battlefield. The military bloggers have provided information about the war in a country where many have become frustrated with the lack of accurate information from official sources. Information provided by the Russian military, Kremlin-controlled television and state officials has been criticised for being inaccurate. Last week, several official Russian sources shared a video allegedly showing Ukrainian troops harassing civilians. Western analysts proved using open-source information that the video had been staged. Some pro-Kremlin bloggers also slammed the video as a crude fake. Much of the bloggers' pro-Russian material is not factual either. link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65161095

Phosphate exports in the first two months of 2023 settled at $1 billion, down from $1.4 billion the previous year. Rabat - After breaking records in 2021 and 2022, the monetary value of Morocco’s phosphate exports dropped by 25% year-on-year in the first two months of 2023, according to data from Morocco’s foreign trade watchdog Office d’Echange (OE). In a monthly update, OE data shows that phosphate exports in the first two months of 2023 settled at MAD 10.9 billion ($1 billion), down from MAD 14.6 billion ($1.4 billion) the previous year. The drop in the monetary value coincides with the overall easing of prices on the international market. Converging data shows that fertilizer prices are sliding by an average of 10% to 12% on a monthly basis in 2023. In 2022, Morocco’s phosphate export hit record highs, growing by 43% and reaching MAD 115.5 billion ($11 billion) in value despite a decrease in the overall volume of exports. The rise in the value of fertilizer exports was primarily supported by the exponential growth in the prices on the international market. Echoing the rise in the value of exports, Morocco’s OCP Group, the company that manages the country’s phosphate reserves, announced a turnover of MAD 25 billion ($2.4 billion) at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, down from MAD 26 billion ($2.5 billion) a year earlier. In a statement, the company said that the drop in its quarterly profits was caused by “unfavorable market conditions” that were marked by declining prices and regressing demand. Fertilizers saw a dramatic rise in value in 2022 on the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, and the ensuing sanctions that caused a shortage of Russian ammonia, a key ingredient in the manufacturing of fertilizers. State-level protectionism measures around the world exacerbated the trend, and caused a severe shortage of fertilizers on the global market. link: https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2023/04/354809/moroccos-phosphate-exports-drop-by-25-in-2023

Nick Movie: Trolls 3: Band Together Time: 2023-11-17 Netflix / Amazon / HBO?: ? Duration of the movie: - Trailer:

Live Performance Title: Polo G - Live at WOO HAH! x Rolling Loud 2022 Signer Name: Polo G Live Performance Location: = Official YouTube Link: Your Opinion About the Track (Music Video): 10/8

Music Title: Marshmello, Polo G, Southside - Grown Man (Official Video) Signer: = Release Date: 03/04/2023 Official Youtube Link: Informations About The Signer: = Your Opinion About The Track (Music Video): 10/9

the request was rejected, there is no interest in joining the journalist member T/C

#Contra as @smileface said, you are an admin on another server

First Minister Humza Yousaf's new cabinet has held its first formal meeting. The 10-strong team has five members under the age of 40 and, for the first time, a majority of women. Mr Yousaf announced his cabinet on Wednesday after being sworn in as Nicola Sturgeon's successor as first minister. Some of the new appointments were sworn into their roles at the Court of Session on Friday morning. In pictures: SNP cabinets down the years Shona Robison replaces Kate Forbes as finance secretary Kate Forbes to leave Scottish government Speaking after the meeting in Bute House, Edinburgh, Mr Yousaf said he wanted to create a forum for "open and honest discussion". "The ministerial team have been tasked with taking a bold approach to how we govern - not just in addressing the challenges facing the people of Scotland, but also maximising the opportunities of our many strengths," he said. Scottish Labour described the new cabinet team as "dismal", while the Scottish Conservatives said it contained "failed, continuity ministers appointed by a failed, continuity minister". link: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-65141786

Brown widow spiders, which are invasive to North America, are wiping out black widow po[CENSORED]tions in the U.S. by aggressively attacking them for no clear reason, a new study shows. Black widow spiders in the U.S. are being killed off by an unexpected rival: their invasive relatives, but the motivation behind the highly aggressive attacks is not yet clear, a new study finds. The perpetrators, brown widow spiders (Latrodectus geometricus), likely originated in Africa or South America but have since spread to every continent on Earth apart from Antarctica. Brown widows are from the same genus as black widows, of which there are five species, including three that are native to North America: southern black widows (Latrodectus mactans), western black widows (Latrodectus hesperus) and northern black widows (Latrodectus variolus). But unlike black widows, which can all inflict extremely painful and occasionally lethal bites on humans, brown widow bites rarely cause significant harm to people, likely because they inject less venom into their bites despite having venom that is "drop-for-drop" just as toxic, according to the Center for Invasive Species Research (CISR)(opens in new tab) at the University of California, Riverside. In the U.S., brown widow spiders were first spotted in 1935 in Florida, and have subsequently spread across the southern states and into California, according to CISR. Since the invasive species was introduced, southern and western black widow numbers have plummeted, particularly in Florida, where southern black widows have gone "locally extinct" in certain areas. However, scientists are unsure exactly why this is happening: Other spider species have not been affected by the brown widow's arrival, and there does not appear to be any competition for resources that would force the two widow species to fight one another. Related: False widow spider preys on baby bat in never-before-seen encounter In a new study, published Monday (March 13) in the journal Annals of the Entomological Society of America(opens in new tab), researchers put solitary brown widows into laboratory tanks with one of three individuals from another spider species — a southern black widow, a red house spider (Nesticodes rufipes) or a triangulate cobweb spider (Steatoda triangulosa), which all overlap with brown widows in the wild — to see how the brown widow reacted to cohabiting with each of the species. When paired with the non-widow spiders, the brown widows peacefully cohabited with their tankmates in 50% to 80% of the tests. The rest of the time, one spider would kill and eat the other, but there was little difference between which species would end up victorious. But when adult brown widows were paired with adult black widows, the invasive species killed and consumed the black widows 40% of the time, the pair peacefully cohabitated together 30% of the time, and in the remaining trials the black widows ended up victorious — but only after defending themselves from an initial brown widow attack. However, when sub-adult individuals of both species were mixed, the brown widows killed and ate their counterparts 80% of the time. Overall, brown widows were six times more likely to kill black widows than the other two spider species. In separate experiments, the team also showed that brown widows produce more offspring than black widows and that those offspring begin to reach maturity faster than black widows. This could explain why sub-adult individuals were so adept at killing younger black widows, which in turn would explain why black widow po[CENSORED]tions are collapsing in areas where brown widows have invaded, the researchers wrote. However, the researchers were surprised at the stark behavioral differences between brown and black widows. Related: 11 deadliest spiders "Brown widows are boldly aggressive and will immediately investigate a neighbor and attack if there is no resistance from the neighbor," study co-author Deby Cassill(opens in new tab), an ecologist at the University of South Florida (USF), said in a statement(opens in new tab). "But the black widows are extremely shy, counterattacking only to defend themselves against an aggressive spider." The researchers are unsure why the closely related species react so differently to one another and plan to study brown and black widows in other parts of the world, such as Africa, to see if the same trends apply. "I would love to see if their [brown widows'] behavior and displacement of black widows is something that they have adapted here in North America, or if this behavior is something they exhibit naturally even in areas where they have coevolved with black widows for much longer periods of time," study lead author Louis Coticchio(opens in new tab), a doctoral student of conservation biology at USF, said in the statement. link: https://www.livescience.com/black-widows-are-being-slaughtered-by-their-brown-widow-cousins-and-we-dont-know-why

This English mad dog is coming up for auction in May. The TVR Cerbera Speed 12 is the wildest TVR ever to be unleashed on the street. Built to compete in the GT1 racing series, this one-off road-legal version of the Cerbera has an 800-plus-hp 7.7-liter V-12 and weighs less than 2200 pounds. This car, the lone surviving example, is coming to Silverstone Auctions this May. The TVR Cerbera, introduced in 1996, was a powerful fiberglass-bodied sports car that could be seen as the U.K.'s Chevrolet Corvette—or maybe its Dodge Viper. In stock form, the Cerbera topped out at 450 horsepower. It also lacked such rudimentary driver assists as traction control or anti-lock brakes. We called the Cerbera "equal parts terrifying and awesome." What, then, to make of this one-off that nearly doubles its output? The Appeal of the Widowmaker Britain’s TVR Returns with New Griffith Sports Car With the Speed 12, TVR built a 7.7-liter V-12 engine out of two of its inline-sixes and crammed that engine into a Kevlar and carbon-fiber body that weighed roughly the same as a first-generation Mazda Miata. Dangerous? It's like playing cricket with hand grenades. But now, this lone survivor Speed 12 can be yours. Blackpool-based TVR does have a reputation for building brutishly insane vehicles, but the Speed 12 was not merely a fit of madness. Instead, it was built as a potential competitor to the likes of the McLaren F1, the Porsche 911 GT1, and the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR. Today, those three are some of the most desirable road cars ever built, homologation specials exactingly engineered for racing dominance at Le Mans. TVR's take on the GT1 class was less a racing scalpel and more a board with a nail sticking out of it. There were a few teething issues in getting this English-bred mad dog into production. First, the FIA took one look at the monster engine of the Speed 12 and slapped a couple of intake restrictors on it, knocking power down to 675 horsepower. Porsche and Mercedes-Benz had huge R&D budgets next to tiny TVR, and in this case, the German Goliaths stomped David into jelly. The Speed 12 did win a few races in Britain but never competed at Le Mans as intended. No problem, said TVR. If we can't build the world's fastest race car, let's build the world's most homicidal road car. Its engineers strapped an unrestricted version of the 7.7-liter V-12 onto the dyno—and the dyno promptly exploded. Eventually, power was confirmed to be in the mid-800-hp range. link: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a43435570/tvr-cerbera-speed-twelve-auction/

Born in California, Rita Wilson, 66, starred in The Brady Bunch TV show at 15. She went on to have roles in Frasier, The Good Wife, Sleepless in Seattle and Runaway Bride. She produced the films My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Mamma Mia! and, most recently, A Man Called Otto, which stars her husband, Tom Hanks, and son Truman. Til You’re Home, which she co-wrote and performed for the soundtrack, was shortlisted for the Academy Award for best original song. The film is available to buy on digital and, from 3 April, to rent on digital and DVD. Wilson lives in California. What is your greatest fear? Losing my memory. My mom had Alzheimer’s disease, and I never ever want to have that decline. Which living person do you most admire and why? I really admire Bonnie Raitt. She is a singer songwriter who has been doing what she has been doing for so many years and she recently won the song of the year Grammy for Just Like That. I loved the validation that creativity never stops, you can keep doing the things that you love. What was your most embarrassing moment? I was doing a photoshoot right after an awards show and I was talking about someone whose makeup I really didn’t like. I said: “She’s gorgeous, I don’t understand how a makeup artist could encourage that?” And the makeup artist on the photoshoot said: “I did her makeup.” What is your most treasured possession? My photo albums. Who would play you in the film of your life? Miley Cyrus. Describe yourself in three words Joyful, compassionate, private. What makes you unhappy? When people I love are not happy. What did you want to be when you were growing up? A singer. What is the worst thing anyone’s said to you? I was opening in a play in my 20s, and my agent came on opening night, brought flowers, took me out to dinner and then told me she was no longer going to be representing me. What is your guiltiest pleasure? Sleeping in. What does love feel like? Like waves of warm water rippling on to the shores of your heart. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? That’s amazing. No way. What is the worst job you’ve done? I was a ticket taker at the Universal Amphitheatre, an outdoor music venue. I saw everybody – Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, the Eagles, Elton. But, after that, we had to clean the women’s restrooms and that was horrible. There was a lot of drinking, a lot of vomiting, a lot of very messy bathrooms. What is the closest you’ve come to death? Having breast cancer. What single thing would improve the quality of your life? No traffic. What keeps you awake at night? Anything and everything. How would you like to be remembered? With love. What is the most important lesson life has taught you? That you’re stronger than you think you are. What happens when we die? There’s a beautiful place called heaven – I’m heading there. I’d like to have a nine in front of my age before I go, though! link: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/apr/01/rita-wilson-actor-interview

Russia has taken the presidency of the UN Security Council despite Ukraine urging members to block the move. Each of the council's 15 members takes up the presidency for a month, on a rotating pattern. The last time Russia had the presidency, February 2022, it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It means the Security Council is being led by a country whose president is subject to an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes. The International Criminal Court - which is not a UN institution - issued the warrant for Vladimir Putin last month. Despite Ukraine's complaints, the United States said it could not block Russia - a permanent council member - from assuming the presidency. The other permanent members of the council are the UK, US, France, and China. The role is mostly procedural, but Moscow's ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, told the Russian Tass news agency that he planned to oversee several debates, including one on arms control. He said he would discuss a "new world order" that, he said, was coming to "replace the unipolar one". Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called Russia's presidency "the worst joke ever for April Fool's Day" and a "stark reminder that something is wrong with the way international security architecture is functioning". Ukraine's presidential adviser, Mykhaylo Podolyak, said the move was "another rape of international law... an entity that wages an aggressive war, violates the norms of humanitarian and criminal law, destroys the UN Charter, neglects nuclear safety, can't head the world's key security body". President Volodymyr Zelensky called last year for the Security Council to reform or "dissolve altogether", accusing it of failing to take enough action to prevent Russia's invasion. He has also called for Russia to be removed of its member status. What war crimes is Russia accused of? Will Vladimir Putin ever face a war crimes trial? But the US has said its hands were tied as the UN charter does not allow for the removal of a permanent member. "Unfortunately, Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council and no feasible international legal pathway exists to change that reality," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a news briefing this week. She added the US expects Moscow "to continue to use its seat on the council to spread disinformation" and justify its actions in Ukraine. The UN Security Council is an international body responsible for maintaining peace. Five nations are permanently represented on the Security Council. They reflect the post-war power structure that held sway when the council was formed. Members of this group work alongside 10 non-permanent member countries. Russia's presence as a permanent member on the Security Council means it can veto resolutions. To pass a Security Council vote, there need to be nine votes in favour, with none of the five permanent members voting against. In February last year Russia vetoed a resolution that intended to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine (China, India and the United Arab Emirates all abstained). In September it vetoed a resolution calling for the reversal of its illegal annexation of four regions of Ukraine. Brazil, China, Gabon and India abstained. link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65146557

Earlier this week, the UN envoy held informal consultations with all parties involved in the Western Sahara dispute. Rabat - The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres received on Thursday evening his personal envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, to discuss the results of the “informal and bilateral consultation” that de Mistura held earlier this week, says a readout of the meeting from the UN Department of Political & Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA). During their meeting, held behind closed doors for about thirty minutes, De Mistura informed Guterres of the “informal and bilateral consultations” he had with representatives of all parties involved in the Sahara conflict, converging media reports have quoted the DPPA statement as noting. The UN envoy invited representatives of Morocco, the Polisario Front, Algeria, and Mauritania, as well as members as well as France, the Russian Federation, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, for informal bilateral consultations with him, prior to the presentation of his semi-annual briefing to the Security Council. On Monday, De Mistura called upon all parties to the Sahar dispute to participate in “informal bilateral” consultations prior to the Security Council briefing set for April. According to a statement from UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, the consultation meetings aim to deepen the examination of positions in the search for a mutually acceptable framework to boost the UN-led political process. Read also: The Long Walk Ahead of the New Personal Envoy for Western Sahara Echoing all the latest UN resolutions, the UN Secretary-General has urged all parties to engage in the informal consultations as an indication of their commitment to the UN-led political process and any potential talks aiming to relaunch dialogue. In October of last year, the latest UN resolution for Western Sahara emphatically spoke of the t Security Council “strongly” encouraging “Morocco, the Frente POLISARIO, Algeria, and Mauritania to engage with the Personal Envoy through the duration of this process, in a spirit of realism and compromise to ensure a successful outcome.” With Algeria appearing to yet again shirk its responsibility in the territorial dispute, the UN’s repeated calls on all parties come as both a reminder of the centrality of the UN-led process and a setback for the Algerian regime’s apparent determination to undermine UN mediation efforts in order to rehabilitate the sidelined referendum option. link: https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2023/03/354790/un-western-sahara-envoy-reports-consultation-results-to-un-security-general

Nick Movie: ASSASSIN CLUB Time: Feb 2nd, 2023. Netflix / Amazon / HBO?: ? Duration of the movie: 2 hours 14 minutes Trailer: