Teacher™

The announcement came as the Ukrainian leader met with President Biden and other top U.S. leaders in an appeal for continued aid. WASHINGTON — The U.S. will provide Ukraine with an additional $325 million in military aid, President Joe Biden announced Thursday during a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The package includes air defense capabilities, cluster munitions, anti-tank weapons and other equipment. "Today I approved the next tranche of U.S. security assistance to Ukraine including more artillery, more ammunition, more anti-tank weapons and next week, the first U.S. Abrams tanks will be delivered to Ukraine," Biden said. "We also focused on strengthening Ukraine’s air defense capabilities to protect the critical infrastructure that provides heat and light during the coldest and darkest days of the year." The announcement was made during Zelenskyy's visit to Washington, D.C., where he appealed to lawmakers and administration officials for more assistance. Zelenskyy thanked Biden for the new aid following the announcement. He said Americans are “together with us, with Ukrainians, with ordinary people, all of us.” “Thank you so much,” he added. Ahead of the meeting, National Security Council senior director for Europe, Amanda Sloat, discussed the aid package on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports." "It’s the fourth package that we will have announced in six weeks," Sloat said, adding that air defense "is the most critical capability that the Ukrainians need now." Sloat added that the new package will not include long-range ballistic missiles that are equipped with cluster munitions — tiny bomblets that disperse widely on a target. She noted, however, that Biden has not ruled out providing them in the future. This package is separate from the additional $24 billion that the president wants Congress to approve for Ukraine. Before the meeting began in the Oval Office, Biden and Zelenskyy gave brief remarks to the reporters. Biden said that no nation will be secure if the U.S. does not help Ukraine in defending its territory against Russia. Zelenskyy thanked Biden and Congress for frank and constructive dialogues during their meetings on Thursday. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and first lady Olena Zelenska at the White House on Thursday. Biden's meeting with Zelenskyy comes as part of the Ukrainian leader's second trip to Washington since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022. Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian president met with a bipartisan group of House members and met with about 70 senators shortly after. A number of Republicans, especially those in the House, are skeptical about approving more aid to Ukraine. In the meeting with senators, Zelenskyy took half a dozen questions on topics including a plan for victory and what Ukrainians need most from the U.S. in terms of financial and military aid. Follow live updates on the Zelenskyy visit After Biden and Zelenskyy met in the Oval Office, both then joined an expanded bilateral meeting in the East Room with other top administration officials including Vice President Kamala Harris. The first ladies of both nations participated in the visit as well. Zelenskyy's trip to Washington also included a meeting at the Pentagon with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley. In his Tuesday speech at the United Nations General Assembly, in New York City, Biden reiterated support for Ukraine and emphasized that "Russia alone bears responsibility for this war." "If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure? I’d respectfully suggest the answer is no," Biden said in his speech. "We have to stand up to this naked aggression today and deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow." Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Thursday that he declined a request from Zelenskyy to address a joint session of Congress because of time constraints given the busy legislative week, in remarks first reported by Punchbowl News. McCarthy also noted that Zelenskyy had already addressed Congress. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pose together at the Capitol on Sept. 21, 2023. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pose together at the Capitol on Sept. 21, 2023. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., blasted McCarthy for his decision not to hold a joint address for Zelenskyy, telling NBC News that “there was a possibility that we could have had a joint session, but apparently the House decided that they didn’t have time to do it, which is disappointing.” “Guess they have their hands full,” Rounds quipped. Zelenskyy's visit comes the same day a group of congressional Republicans sent a letter to Director of the Office of Management and Budget Shalanda Young about Ukraine's funding request, arguing that "it would be an absurd abdication of congressional responsibility to grant" it without having further details about how the money is used, the Ukrainians' strategy and Biden's exit plan. The letter was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. In Washington, Zelenskyy met for a little more than an hour with senators on Capitol Hill. He spoke entirely in English, without the use of translators, according to two Senators in the room. “He was exceptionally good today,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., who has questioned and voted against aid for Ukraine in the past. Zelenskyy was “extremely personable,” Rounds said, adding that the closed-door nature of the meeting allowed senators to have a more intimate conversation with the Ukrainian president. Asked if there was concern that Congress would not approve aid, Rounds shot back that there was “more than enough” support in both chambers. Both Biden and Zelenskyy attended the U.N. General Assembly this week, and in July they met during the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Zelenskyy visited Washington in December and delivered an address to a joint meeting of Congress. He also met with Biden at the White House during the December trip. “Ukraine is alive and kicking,” he said in his previous speech to Congress. “Ukraine holds its lines and will never surrender.” Congress has appropriated more than $113 billion for the U.S. response to the war in Ukraine, according to a March release from the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/zelenskyy-visit-congress-meet-biden-white-house-rcna108115

American Bully XL dogs are to be banned in the UK by the end of the year, the country's Prime Minster Rishi Sunak has announced. It comes after a man in England died following what Mr Sunak described as "another suspected XL bully attack" on Thursday. It was the latest in a series of deadly incidents. Mr Sunak said he had ordered work to legally define the breed behind the recent attacks so it can be banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act, which applies in England, Wales and Scotland. What is an American bully XL? The XL is the largest of four types of American Bully: standard, pocket, classic and XL. Strong enough to overpower an adult, the American bully XL can weigh more than nine stone (60kg). American Bullies are said to have originated in the US in the late 1980s, when American Pit Bull Terriers and American Staffordshire Terriers were crossed. They have been crossed with other breeds to create an even more muscular dog. The United Kennel Club in the US says that an American Bully "makes an excellent family dog" with a "gentle and friendly" demeanour, "despite its powerful appearance". It says that "some level of dog aggression is characteristic of this breed" but also notes "aggressive behaviour towards humans is uncharacteristic". While the US recognises the American Bully as a specific breed, the main British dog associations do not. According to UK campaign group Bully Watch, the breed only appeared in the UK "around 2014 or 2015", with numbers growing rapidly during the coronavirus pandemic. How many attacks have there been in UK? American Bullies have been involved in several high-profile attacks in the UK. The most recent suspected attack happened in Walsall, in England's West Midlands region. Following the man's death, Mr Sunak announced his decision to seek a ban on the breed. An 11-year-old girl was attacked by an American bully XL in Birmingham on Saturday. Two men who intervened were also treated in hospital after being bitten by the animal. In April, a 65-year-old grandmother was killed after she tried to break up a fight between her two American bullies at her home in Liverpool. The coroner noted that she had been found with "catastrophic injuries". Last year, a 17-month-old toddler was mauled to death in her own home by one of the dogs in St Helens, one week after her family had bought it. And in 2021, 10-year-old Jack Lis died from severe neck and head injuriesafter he was attacked by an American bully XL in Caerphilly, Wales. His mother, Emma Whitfield, has called for the dogs to be banned. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-66820995

I’ve always been an anxious person, but have never been formally diagnosed with anxiety or prescribed medication to alleviate the symptoms. Last year I started living on my own for the first time, which, while freeing in many ways, has exacerbated my struggles. Being responsible for maintenance and repairs stresses me out, often to the point of tears. I feel ashamed of my inability to deal with what are ostensibly very simple, mundane problems. Even the prospect of hanging up pictures or painting a wall is daunting. I don’t have children, I don’t have any caring responsibilities, I’m physically healthy, and my job is both satisfying and low-stress – so why does life feel so difficult on a daily basis? Now that I’m approaching 30, I’m tired of dealing with my mental health on my own, but feel there are no obvious paths to recovery. My best friends have regular therapy sessions. However, they earn a lot more than I do. Even a trainee counsellor at reduced rates or a service like BetterHelp are beyond what I can afford. Whenever I visit my parents or hang out with my friends, I feel miles better. But as soon as I come back to my empty home, I start to spiral again. They’re aware I’ve been having a hard time, and always insist that I tell them whenever I feel sad or anxious. But, paradoxically, the worse I feel, the harder it is for me to reach out to them. I worry that if I contact them every time I feel down, it will wear them out, perhaps even scare them. It’s not fair to make them my unpaid therapists. I know from my GP that there’s a two-year waiting list for NHS counselling services for those in acute mental distress, let alone “high-functioning” people like me. What should I do? It’s great that you feel better after seeing your family and friends: you have found something that does work and, to a certain extent, that is what family and friends are for. I wonder where you learned that you might “wear people out”? We are social animals and we need that connection. I contacted UKCP registered psychoanalytic psychotherapist Prof Brett Kahr and asked him what causes anxiety. He explained that anxiety is the ultimate manifestation of being human, that we all experience it and it reflects how safe or unsafe we feel in the world. He further explained that “feeling some level of anxiety is often a sign of mental sturdiness, as an anxious person might be more attuned to the realities of life rather than being in a state of denial. It can be the people who are least in touch with their anxiety – those who profess not to feel anxious – who often project their own suffering on to everyone else.” link:https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/aug/04/living-alone-is-making-my-anxiety-spiral-but-im-too-ashamed-to-reach-out-to-friends-and-family

Israeli forces have encircled the Hamas stronghold of Gaza City, Israel's military says, as it continues its assault on the Gaza Strip. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said soldiers were engaged in close quarters combat with Hamas fighters staging hit-and-run attacks from tunnels. The UN said four of its schools being used as shelters had been damaged and warned water shortages were worsening. The Hamas-run health ministry says over 9,000 Palestinians have been killed. On Thursday the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said four of its schools being used as shelters hade been damaged in less than 24 hours. At least 20 people were reportedly killed at a school in the Jabalia refugee camp, UNRWA said, while a child was reportedly killed at a school-turned-shelter in the Beach refugee camp. The BBC has verified two videos from the schools. One extremely graphic video, filmed at an elementary school in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, shows the aftermath, first outside the main gate of the school and then in the main courtyard. At least 20 people, either dead or injured, can be seen on the ground, including men, women and children. The second video, filmed at the main courtyard of a primary school in Beach refugee camp, also in northern Gaza but near the Mediterranean coast, shows a plume of smoke rising from behind the main building of the school. Several people, including children, run for safety in the courtyard, while some residents of the camp watch from the windows above. A series of explosions can be heard in the background of the video. The last one, the loudest, causes the crowd in the courtyard to flee in panic. Hamas authorities in Gaza blamed Israeli air strikes. The IDF has not yet commented. UN-appointed experts have called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, saying time was running out for Palestinian people there who find themselves at "grave risk of genocide". "The situation in Gaza has reached a catastrophic tipping point," they said, warning that a ban on fuel entering Gaza and disruption to water supplies meant people had little access to safe drinking water. "Water is essential to human life and today, two million Gazans are struggling to find drinking water," they said. The Israeli mission to the UN in Geneva called the comments "deplorable and deeply concerning" and blamed Hamas for civilian deaths. Earlier on Thursday the IDF said it had killed about 130 Hamas fighters. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said troops were at "the height of battle". "We've had impressive successes and have passed the outskirts of Gaza City. We are advancing," he said in a statement. A number of foreign nationals were able to leave Gaza after the Rafah crossing with Egypt opened for a second day. President Biden says more than 70 Americans were among them. But medical aid organisation Doctors Without Borders says more than 20,000 wounded people remained trapped in the territory. Meanwhile, the Lebanese movement Hezbollah said it had attacked 19 targets in Israel simultaneously, in what would be its most intense assault on Israel so far. The Israeli military said it was striking a series of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in response. It comes a day before a much-anticipated speech by the leader of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah, his first public address since the conflict broke out last month. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67302206

Voted

¤ Nick: ¤ Steam -ID / IP: ¤ Ban Time: ¤ Reason: ¤ Proof:

Voted

Voted

Nickname : @BeBoOo Age:22 Profile Link: https://csblackdevil.com/forums/profile/91225-bebooo/ How much time you can be active in Forum & TS3: 4 or 5 Link of Reviews you have posted recently:

Nick movie: American Mech soldiers combat unknown elements & save the world Time: Shotgun BomBom Netflix / Amazon / HBO: N/A Duration of the movie: 6 minutes - 13sec Trailer:

Music: Alan Walker, K-391 & Boy In Space - Paradise (Instrumental) Signer: Walker ID Release date: Aug 01‏/10‏/2021 Official YouTube link:

The Gaganyaan mission is aimed at developing a human-habitable space capsule that will carry a three-member crew. India is set to conduct a key test in its ambitious crewed space mission Gaganyaan as early as next month, the project director of the mission R Hutton told Reuters. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is currently training four astronauts and looking to expand the cohort as it aims for more future manned missions, Hutton said. The Gaganyaan mission is aimed at developing a human-habitable space capsule that will carry a three-member crew into an orbit of 400 km (250 miles) for three days, before returning to safety in a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean. ISRO has said it will explore ways to achieve a sustained human presence in space once Gaganyaan is completed. The team is aiming to test its crew escape system, which can be used to eject astronauts in emergencies, before undertaking a battery of other tests before the final launch phase, Hutton said, adding: "Safety is the most important thing we need to ensure". About Rs. 90.23 billion has been allocated for the mission, which comes after the space agency's historical landing of its Chandrayaan-3 craft on the lunar south pole. While an exact timeline has not been shared, the mission is expected to be launched from the country's main spaceport in Sriharikota before 2024. link: https://www.gadgets360.com/science/news/isro-indian-space-mission-gaganyaan-october-key-test-4394210

What a CPU does is execute the instructions of a program located in a memory. But did you know that they all follow the same general rules? They all follow the same instruction cycle, which is divided into three distinct stages called Fetch, Decode, and Execute, which are translated as fetch, decode, and execute. We explain how these stages work and how they are organized. In order to simplify and make the concepts explained in this article more understandable, we have decided to describe an extremely simple processor for these times, so in this article you will see an explanation of what instruction cycles are in a general way that can be apply from the first 8-bit processors to the most complex ones that exist today. The processors are not different from a certain point of view to a combustion engine, which always carry out a continuous process of fuel explosion in different stages, whether they are 2-stroke or 4-stroke. The reason for this is that the processors work in three different stages in their simplest version, which are the following: Fetch or Capture: In which the instruction is captured from RAM memory and copied into the processor. Decode or Decoding: In which the previously captured instruction is decoded and sent to the execution units. Execute or Execution: Where the instruction is resolved and the result written in the internal registers of the processor or in a memory address of RAM. These three stages are fulfilled in every processor, there is a fourth stage which is Write-Back which is when the execution units write the result, but normally this is counted within the execution stage of the instruction cycle. The first stage of the instruction cycle is responsible for capturing the instructions that are in the RAM memory assigned to the processor through a series of units and registers that are the following: Program Counter or Program Counter: Which points to the next memory line where the next processor instruction is located. Its value is incremented by 1 each time a complete instruction cycle is completed or when a jump instruction changes the value of the program counter. Memory Address Register or memory address register: The MAR copies the contents of the PC and sends it to RAM through the address pins of the CPU, which are wired with the address pins of the RAM itself. Memory Data Register or memory data register: In the event that the CPU has to perform a memory reading, what the MDR does is copy the content of that memory address to an internal register of the CPU, which is a temporary step register before its contents are copied to the Instruction Register. The MDR, contrary to the MAR, is connected to the data pins of the RAM and not to the address pins, and in the case of a write instruction, the content of what is to be written in the RAM is also written in the MDR Instruction Register or Instruction Register: The final part of the capture or fetch stage is the writing of the instruction in the instruction register, from which the processor control unit will copy its content for the second stage of the instruction cycle. These 4 sub-stages occur in all processors regardless of their utility, architecture and binary compatibility or what we call ISA https://hardzone.es/tutoriales/rendimiento/ciclo-instruccion-cpu/

The components that have dropped the most in price have been the RAM memory modules. A report has been published on which are the largest sellers of these components in 2022. The data shows that the market is controlled by Kingston with a 78% share. But, big brands such as Crucial, Corsair or G.Skill, among other prominent brands, do not appear on the list. This report highlights that Kingston is the largest memory seller with just over 78% market share in 2022. It may seem like an absurd figure, but it has been around 75-80% share for years. The second position goes to Ramaxel, a Chinese manufacturer that offers generic modules, with a 3.78% share. We have ADATA in third position with a 3.33% share. We are in fourth position with POWEV, a Chinese manufacturer that only sells in that country and has a 2.88% share. Finally, in fifth position we have Kimtigo, also a Chinese manufacturer, which has a 2.33% share. Patriot, Innodisk, Team Groupo and Apacer, other large RAM module manufacturers, have less than 1% share. There is a 4.15% remainder that would be occupied by other brands with shares less than 0.7%. Surely and at first glance, you will miss some outstanding brands in this segment. The three most notable are G.Skill, Crucial (Micron) and Corsair, which are top manufacturers of this type of modules. Above all, the big mistake that we detected would be that of Corsair, which has reached a 3% share and suddenly disappeared. It catches our attention that among the 10 largest sellers there are 4 manufacturers that only sell mostly generic modules in China. These memories are possibly used in OEM systems and budget gaming systems. Two of the most common types of systems in China. Tell us what you think of this ranking and if you think it is strange that several important brands are out. https://hardzone.es/noticias/componentes/principales-fabridcantes-modulos-memoria-ram-ddr4-ddr5/

Polish developer The Astronauts was founded nearly eleven years ago and only released the horror adventure game The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (in 2014), though that's about to change with the upcoming early access debut of Witchfire. The dark fantasy roguelite first-person shooter was revealed a long time ago at Geoff Keighley's 2017 The Game Awards. The small team went silent for over four years, announcing in January 2022 that Witchfire would launch in early access in late 2022. However, there was another delay to 2023, with the developers explaining that they would add open world-like areas to improve the game's exploration. With mere days separating us from the September 20th launch of Witchfire on early access, we discussed with The Astronauts founder and CEO Adrian Chmielarz (also known as the project leader on 2004's Painkiller and the creative director on Bulletstorm) the reason for the long development phase and one-year Epic Games Store exclusivity, and the exciting performance results obtained with the implementation of NVIDIA Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) 3. We also confirmed with him that AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) and Intel Xe Super Sampling (XeSS) will still be in the game on day one and received a preview of Witchfire's system specifications. Read on for the full chat. Witchfire took seven years to make, and the full version won't be out until 2024. Can you talk about the development phase for this game? To us, after our first game, it was either significantly grow the team and make Witchfire relatively quickly or keep it small and make it quite slowly. With the fiscal discipline and risks in mind, we opted for the latter. The downside is obvious. What should take us four years will take us, in the end, eight or so. The upside is that we were able to really think through the structure and mechanics of the game, and just give it time to properly cook through. For Witchfire, you've opted to release the game only on the Epic Games Store for a year. Why did you make this choice? Did you get a lot of backlash from the community? Our first game was a story-driven weird fiction game. Yes, it sold well. Very well. But I hope nobody expects a game like that to carry a studio, even a small one, for a decade. The deal with Epic allowed us to keep our independence. We could have sold some of the studio to investors, but thanks to Epic, we didn’t have to. Also, Epic helps us promote the game. A store’s front page is worth more than all of your trailers and social media posts combined. How much content is in the early access version that launches on September 20th? Will the price change for the final release? We juggled many options but settled on the simplest possible solution: one price for both the Early Access period and the final release. The amount of content at the Early Access launch is all over the place, in a way. It’s hard to say “it’s a bit over one-third of the game” or whatever simply because some things are there at 75% and some at 20%. But we’ve done all we could to make sure there’s more than enough content to justify a release. Witchfire is based on Unreal Engine 4. Do you have any plans to upgrade to Unreal Engine 5? If so, will you take advantage of features like Nanite and Lumen? We will be evaluating that as an option for sure. When we remade The Vanishing of Ethan Carter in UE4 from UE3, we basically had to make the game from scratch. The versions were that incompatible. That’s not the case with UE5, luckily. We’ll see. In early 2022, you said you were considering RTX support. Does the game support any ray tracing effects? If not, will you add them later? Not at the moment, but to be honest, our game is not one to beg for it. There’s a lot of natural surfaces in Witchfire, and trees and castle walls and rusty gates are not that phenomenal for ray tracing. And our mix of baked and real-time lights makes sure the radiosity is good already out of the box. You did confirm DLSS 3 support a while back. What do you think about Frame Generation, and what kind of performance uplift are you seeing with it? I think this is fantastic. But I also think we need to explain it better to the players. For example, with only 67% of sharpness, let’s call it that, the image upscaled to 100% is maybe 1% worse than if it was directly rendered to 100%. It sounds weird, it sounds impossible, but that’s the truth. And the framerate boost is phenomenal. So, for the low price of 1% of image degradation, which is basically nothing, you get a much better experience. https://wccftech.com/witchfire-qa-on-long-dev-phase-egs-exclusivity-dlss-3s-phenomenal-frame-rate-boost-and-fsr-xess-support/

At least four defenders, one of them a staff member of the Public Criminal Defender's Office (DPP), which depends on the Ministry of Justice, had access to the data of protected witnesses and undercover agents. The Public Criminal Defender's Office assures that the data is safe, but this afternoon the Public Ministry began a criminal investigation, for violation of the articles of the Drug Law that require confidential data of this type of cases to be kept secret. . While yesterday the relocation of witnesses and undercover agents who had the status of protected until before Judge Héctor Barraza ordered their identities to be handed over to the defense lawyers of the criminal organization Tren de Aragua, in Arica, several sources confirmed this afternoon that the National Prosecutor, Ángel Valencia, ordered the initiation of a criminal investigation due to the violation of several regulations regarding the secrecy that must be maintained in investigations. This investigation fell to the Regional Prosecutor of Iquique and Tarapacá, Raúl Arancibia. It is worth mentioning that, among other regulatory bodies that sanction the disclosure of secrets, the drug law establishes in its articles 30, 31 and 38 that prosecutors are obliged to protect the identities of witnesses, experts, informants or undercover or revealing agents, as well as those of their relatives, while the court "must decree the prohibition of revealing, in any way, the identity of protected witnesses or experts, or the background that leads to their identification." The violation of the above, the regulations indicate, has a minor prison sentence in its medium to maximum degree (from 61 days to 3 years). The law also indicates that the same penalty applies to anyone who disseminates or discloses information that is secret or, even, the mere fact that an investigation of this type is being carried out. As El Mostrador was able to establish, one of the sources of concern is related to the conduct of one of the court officials, who, as soon as the hearing was over, without even a record of it yet existing, handed over the records with the individualizations of the 57 protected witnesses and undercover agents to four defense attorneys, despite the judge's instruction that his handover had to be coordinated. n the hearing led by Héctor Barraza, he denied the presence via zoom of the prosecutor in charge of the case, who no longer lives in Arica, due to the threats against him (for which he has authorization from the committee of judges of that city, to attend the hearings remotely) and did the same with the plaintiff lawyer representing the Ministry of the Interior. Meanwhile, this afternoon, the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, pointed out that “the government is analyzing the constitutional and also legal powers it has to show that it seems to us that it is wrong and possibly negligent conduct and therefore we are analyzing the powers that the government has, among them we are analyzing the constitutional powers that are vested in the President of the Republic, particularly in article 32 of the Constitution, which gives him the power to review the ministerial conduct of judges and other employees of the Judicial Branch. This matter has been entrusted to the Minister of Justice, Luis Cordero, but I want to say from now on that the government intends to act, to show that we believe that this conduct is serious conduct that should not have occurred and that must be prevented." . He insisted that what Judge Barraza did “is a serious decision, because first he did not allow the intervening parties to be heard, such as the prosecutor in charge himself, who had to testify precisely because he is under protective measures via telematics, he was not allowed to participate. in the hearing and the lawyers of the Ministry of the Interior were not allowed to participate in that hearing either,” evaluating positively the fact that the Court of Arica had decreed an order not to innovate regarding the delivery of the information. The effects of resolution In addition to the indignation that Barraza's decision generated at different levels, yesterday efforts began to be made to relocate various witnesses and undercover PDI agents, some of whom spent several weeks infiltrating the criminal organization, using false identities. https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2023/09/14/inician-investigacion-penal-por-caso-de-juez-barraza/

I’ve gone to get fish and chips, and a bush has started chirping at me. Not just one chirp, either. A barrage. I’ve never met such a chatty bush. Swanage is hot, sandy, lazy. A seaside minibreak, wringing the last drops of summer from the year. A squabble of herring gulls argue over a chip. Crows loiter with intent to scavenge. A pied wagtail bounces overhead, lands on a patch of sandy grass, and struts its wind-up toy walk, on the lookout for scraps. British seasiders play fast and loose with the foodstuffs, and there are easy pickings to be had. So the chatty bush is no surprise. They are house sparrows, the ultimate LBJ (little brown job) and as enthusiastic a devourer of our leftovers as you’ll find. Thirty of them, give or take, babbling and chattering and falling over each other to say hello. Spadger, spug, squidgie, sparky, sprog – the wealth of folk names is a reflection of their former ubiquity. This encounter lifts the heart in strange and unfathomable ways. Back in the day they were so commonplace that 30 in a bush would barely have merited a glance. But times change, and now, on the comparatively rare occasions I do see them on my south London patch, I greet them with the exuberance reserved for old friends. The po[CENSORED]tion decline has been sharp – up to 70% between 1977 and 2018, with signs of a slight increase since then. The usual reasons are suspected – habitat loss, lack of suitable food, closing up of the little spaces where they like to nest. But sparrows are hardy and adaptable, and they like being around us. Recent research shows that the relationship goes back 11,000 years, to the development of agriculture. Their worldwide dispersal only actually came in the last two centuries, coinciding with Victorian expansion of empire, and enabled by genes that allow them to digest starchy grains – an ability lacking in their ancestors. Further along the beach, a Punch and Judy show – another declining species – blares out a tale of cartoon violence and sausages to an appreciative crowd. The gulls and crows – Jets and Sharks – bicker over a discarded sandwich. A lone sparrow pops up to the fringe of the bush and gives an enquiring chirp. Cocking its head, it clearly realises I’m a dead loss and disappears back into the depths. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/18/country-diary-a-bush-full-of-chatty-sparrows-is-a-bittersweet-delight

foster happiness and health Emma Beddington Mon 18 Sep 2023 05.00 BST Iget anxious about interviews, I tell Matthieu Ricard moments after he appears on my computer screen in his red and saffron robes, his background, somewhere in the Dordogne region of France, discreetly blurred. He starts laughing uproariously before I can even get my confession out; he laughs frequently and infectiously throughout our call. “Really? In your job?” Yes, I reply. Does anything make him anxious? He considers the question. “Yes, missing planes or trains. Besides that, I don’t have many worries.” This interview in particular feels intimidating. Ricard, 77, combines the rigour of a French intellectual (he has a PhD in cellular genetics, has written books on altruism, meditation and compassion for animals and translated numerous Buddhist texts into French and English) with the wisdom you get from 50-plus years of intense spiritual practice. I have the profundity of a Pop Tart and told a fruit fly to [CENSORED] off this morning; of course I’m anxious. But I’m also excited. Like so many of us, I have spent most of my life wondering about happiness: is it really achievable? How? Is it selfish to even strive for it? Who better to help than “the world’s happiest man”? This millstone of a title –“a nonsense idea” he calls it – attached to Ricard after he took part in a 2004 research project that analysed his brain as he meditated on compassion. The electroencephalogram recorded unprecedented levels of gamma waves, associated with wellbeing and focus. His meditation also activated an area of the brain associated with positive emotions. “Just think for two seconds,” he says with gentle exasperation. “How can we know the state of happiness of 8 billion human beings? Maybe there’s a guy who’s in complete bliss all the time?” Does the label annoy him? “No. I feel embarrassed. One of my friends said: ‘On your grave it will read: ‘Here lies the happiest man in the world.’’” But his spiritual teacher’s grandson, he says, told him: “Take it and use it. Stop fighting it.” https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/sep/18/the-worlds-happiest-man-matthieu-ricard-on-the-secrets-of-a-serene-successful-satisfying-life

A veteran US senator has temporarily stepped down as head of the chamber's powerful foreign relations committee as he battles bribery charges. Justice department prosecutors allege Robert Menendez and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for aid to Egypt's government. The couple have denied the charges. The embattled senator has rejected calls from fellow Democrats back in his home state of New Jersey to resign his seat. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said on Friday that Mr Menendez had decided to step down as chairman of the influential committee "until the matter has been resolved." The New York Democrat said his colleague was "a dedicated public servant and is always fighting hard for the people of New Jersey." It is not the first time that Mr Menendez, 69, who has served in Congress since 2006, has had to give up the coveted post on the foreign relations panel. He also stepped down in 2015 after being indicted in New Jersey on charges that he had accepted bribes from a Florida eye doctor. That case ended in a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. Maryland Democrat Ben Cardin, who took over as the committee's leading Democrat at the time, is expected again to temporarily ascend to fill the vacancy. Mr Menendez and his spouse, Nadine Arslanian, are accused of accepting bribes of cash, gold, payments towards a home mortgage and a luxury vehicle from three New Jersey businessmen. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66897845

Voted