BRUSSELS — For European Union nations, Joe Biden’s Jan. … of Portugal, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said Thursday … Washington though would please the EU no end — rejoining the Paris … .”
To smooth the way, the EU has already invited President-elect …
Stunned EU leaders yearn for Biden presidency — ASAP
Syria intercepts Israeli missiles – Vatican News
By Nathan Morley
According to the Syrian state news agency, SANA, the attack was carried out from over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. It targeted several military sites in south of Damascus.
This is the third such attack in a fortnight.
The SANA report added that Syrian air defences intercepted most of the incoming missiles.
Residents say the sound of anti-air weapons could be heard over Damascus for over an hour, with television pictures showing a multi-storey building ablaze.
There was no comment from Israel.
UN officials condemn car bombings
In a separate development, the killing of civilians in separate car bomb attacks in northern Syria over the weekend has been condemned by top UN humanitarian officials for the country.
“This year, civilians in Syria will have endured ten years of crisis. These two attacks so early in the new year serve as a tragic reminder of the price civilians across the country continue to pay,” a UN spokesman said.
CFTC and ESMA Sign Enhanced MOU Related to Certain Recognized Central Counterparties
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) today announced the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding cooperation and the exchange of information with respect to certain registered derivatives clearing organizations established in the United States that are central counterparties (CCPs) recognized by ESMA under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).
The MOU reflects ESMA’s and the CFTC’s commitment to strengthening their mutual cooperative relationship, which has continued to flourish under the leadership of Chair Steven Maijoor and Chairman Heath P. Tarbert.
“We look forward to building upon our strong relationship with ESMA and embarking upon a cooperative relationship with ESMA’s new CCP Supervisory Committee,” said Suyash Paliwal, Director of the CFTC’s Office of International Affairs. “The deferential approach embodied in this MOU is a major milestone in the years-long engagement between the CFTC and its EU counterparts on the implementation of EMIR as amended.”
“I am pleased to see ESMA entering a phase of closer cooperation with the CFTC,” said Chair of ESMA’s CCP Supervisory Committee Klaus Löber. “This MOU sets out the basis for the enhanced collaboration between our institutions and is an important step towards building the risk-based and outcome-focused supervision of CCPs in accordance with the amended European Market Infrastructure Regulation.”
Brexit deal: how new EU-UK relations will affect you
EU-UK relations are changing following Brexit and the deal reached at the end of 2020. Find out what this means for you.
The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. There was a transition period during which the UK remained part of the Single market and Customs Union to allow for negotiations on the future relations. Following intense negotiations, an agreement on future EU-UK relations was concluded end of December 2020. Although it will be provisionally applied, it will still need to be approved by the Parliament before it can formally enter into force. MEPs are currently scrutinising the text in the specialised parliamentary committees before voting on it during a plenary session.
A number of issues were already covered by the withdrawal agreement, which the EU and the UK agreed at the end of 2019. This agreement on the separation issues deals with the protection of the rights of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens living in other parts of the EU, the UK’s financial commitments undertaken as a member state, as well as border issues, especially on the Isle of Ireland.
Living and working in the UK or the EU
EU citizens in the UK or UK citizens in an EU member state who were already living there before January 2021 are allowed to continue living and working where they are now provided they registered and were granted settlement permits by the national authorities of the member states or the UK.
For those UK citizens not already living in the EU, their right to live and work in any EU country apart from the Republic of Ireland (as the UK has a separate agreement with them) is not automatically granted and can be subject to restrictions. Also, they no longer have their qualifications automatically recognised in EU countries, which was previously the case.
For UK citizens wanting to visit or stay in the EU for more than 90 days for any reason need to meet the requirements for entry and stay for people from outside the EU. This also applies to UK citizens with a second home in the EU.
People from the EU wanting to move to the UK for a long-term stay or work – meaning more than six months – will need to meet the migration conditions set out by the UK government, including applying for a visa.
Travelling
UK citizens can visit the EU for up to 90 days within any 180-day period without needing a visa.
However, UK citizens can no longer make use of the EU’s fast track passport controls and customs lanes. They also need to have a return ticket and be able to prove they have enough funds for their stay. They also need to have at least six months left on their passport.
EU citizens can visit the UK for up to six months without needing a visa. EU citizens will need to present a valid passport to visit the UK.
Healthcare
EU citizens temporarily staying in the UK still benefit from emergency healthcare based on the European Health Insurance Card. For stays longer than six months, they need to pay a healthcare surcharge.
Pensioners continue to benefit from healthcare where they live. The country paying for their pension will reimburse the country of residence.
Erasmus
The UK has decided to stop participating in the popular Erasmus+ exchange programme and to create its own exchange programme. Therefore EU students will not be able to participate in exchange programme in the UK anymore. However, people from Northern Ireland can continue to take part.
Trade in goods and services
With the agreement, goods exchanged between the UK and EU countries are not subject to tariffs or quotas. However, there are new procedures for moving goods to and from the UK as border controls on the respect of the internal market rules (sanitary, security, social, environmental standard for example) or applicable UK regulation are in place. This means more red tape and additional costs. For example, all imports into the EU are subject to customs formalities while they must also meet all EU standards so they are subject to regulatory checks and controls. This does not apply to goods being moved between Northern Ireland and the EU.
Regarding services, UK companies no longer have the automatic right to offer services across the EU. If they want to continue operating in the EU, they will need to establish themselves here.
Saleh: Taliban Fights Over Power ‘Not Religion’
First vice president, Amrullah Saleh in a visit to Nangarhar province said, that the “real fight” is over power.
According to Saleh Taliban have not yet replied to the question about their definition of the Islamic system, he added, the “real fight is over power, not religion”.
Saleh During the event in Nangarhar said, “we need peace with dignity and honor that ensures women’s rights” adding that “there will be no more compromise on the republic, human rights, and the nation’s flag”.
He blamed the Taliban and their allies for being involved in “all the destruction and the killing of the people in the country”.
Saleh whined, people in the areas under the Taliban influence are “poor and live like captives”, the economy of the country is badly affected, and that “we hope, we will address problems of people” who are under the Taliban influence.
This comes as President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday morning, visited Nangarhar province to meet with the provincial governor, military officers, public, writers, and cultural figures.
He was accompanied by his first vice president, cabinet member, national security adviser, parliament members, and other officials.
EU Should Avoid Influence From Other Nations on EU-China Relations, FM Wang Yi Says Amid Trade Deal
Europe should not be influenced by other nations in its relations with Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a meeting with Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides on Tuesday as reported by the South China Morning Post.
Chinese-EU relations should “not be affected by external interference” but should advance “towards win-win cooperation”, Wang said, adding Beijing regarded the 27-member bloc as a major force for a multipolar world.
“China-EU consensus outweighs differences. The two sides are partners, not systemic rivals. China and the EU should understand and respect the choices of each other’s people, actively expanding common interests and enhancing mutual trust,” he added.
The news comes as officials have hailed the deal as a success, despite criticisms over alleged human rights abuses and forced labour in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), which Beijing has repeatedly denied, the report read.
But according to a recent interview with CNN, the deal has triggered concerns in Washington, where President-elect Joe Biden’s administration aims to boost soured ties between the US and EU, as well as work with European allies.
“We are confident we can develop a common agenda on issues where we share deep concerns about China. And it’s not just on trade, it’s on technology. It’s on human rights. It’s on military aggression,” incoming national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN at the time.
What Are the Four Aspects of Developing China-EU Relations?
FM Wang Yi’s comments come after he announced four-point strategy to increase EU-China ties in August. The goals come amid efforts to tackle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and meet UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The news comes after Brussels and Beijing struck the deal ahead of New Year’s Eve last year, with the agreement being confirmed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
According to EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) was the “most ambitious outcomes that China has ever agreed with a third country”.
The agreement comes just days after the EU and United Kingdom struck a post-Brexit trade deal on Christmas Eve and Beijing inked the 15-member Regional Cooperative Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world’s largest deal in history, in November.
Right to religion not higher than right to life: Madras HC
CHENNAI: The Madras high court asserted on Wednesday that the right to religion is not higher than the right to life. “Religious rights are subject to public interest and the right to life,” the HC said.
If the state decides to take some action by restricting religious functions during the pandemic, we (court) cannot interfere, the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said.
The court made the observations while hearing a PIL moved by Rangarajan Narasimhan alleging that religious functions and rites that ought to be conducted at Trichy Srirangam Temple are not conducted as per the sacred texts but according to the whims and fancies of the Hindu religious and charitable endowments department.
The petitioner wanted the court to direct the state government to constitute a committee comprising religious heads to decide the mode and manner in which such functions should be conducted. When the plea came up for hearing, the bench said when the government imposes certain restrictions to protect the life and health of the public, the same must be adhered to.
However, if such religious functions can be performed with minimal participation of the public, the same can be done after following the Covid-19 protocol, the court added. Concurring, the petitioner said there are ways prescribed in the “shastras” to conduct functions in a minimal way. But only religious leaders, who are well-versed with the shastras, can suggest the same, not the joint commissioner or executive officer of the department, he said.
Representing the authorities, senior advocate Satish Parasaran submitted that all mandatory religious functions are conducted by adhering to Covid standard operating procedures. The court directed the authorities to consult the religious leaders concerned as to how the festivities would be conducted. However, hygiene and Covid protocol cannot be compromised to conduct such functions, the court added.
Noting that the state might consider including the petitioner in the discussions, the court directed it to file a report in six weeks as to the manner in which the functions can be conducted till July.
Glenn Beck: This is the REAL Raphael Warnock and our new ‘national religion’
Multiple news outlets have called one of Georgia’s Senate runoff elections for the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the Democrat who defeated Republican incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
So, on the radio show Wednesday, Glenn Beck looked into what this “radical preacher” has been saying in the past — and what he’ll likely bring to the U.S. Senate in the future.
“Warnock is in one of the most influential and powerful stages of the country. And I use the word ‘stage’ intentionally,” Glenn said. “It’s the pulpit. He’s the guy who says, if you voted for Donald Trump, well, you’re a sinner.”
Glenn introduced a video clip in which Warnock asserts:
If it is true that a man who has dominated the news and poisoned the discussion for months needs to repent, then it is doubly true that a nation that can produce such a man and make his vitriol go viral, needs to repent. I know, no matter what happens next month, more than a third of the nation that would go along with this, has reason to be afraid. America needs to repent for its worship of whiteness!
“So, (according to Warnock) you should be afraid,” Glenn said. “Oh, and whiteness is evil. And, somehow or another, America has been worshiping whiteness … see, critical race theory is now our new national religion.”
Watch the video clip below to hear more from Glenn:
Want more from Glenn Beck?
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From inside The Hoosier Gym came a book on what the movie “Hoosiers” is really about
| Indianapolis Star
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Historic Hoosier Gyms: Landmarks of Indiana Basketball
These are just a few of the gyms in Indiana that are still standing despite school closings or a new gym replacing them.
Dawn Mitchell, [email protected]
KNIGHTSTOWN — Robert Garner’s work these days — 50-some years after he last stepped foot in The Hoosier Gym as a high school senior — is what you might call an inside job.
After decades in the medical field, Garner now is the events coordinator of The Hoosier Gym. He spends days inside the iconic Knightstown relic where the sports movie classic “Hoosiers” was filmed in 1985. Where tour groups from across America show up to catch a glimpse of the place fictional basketball magic took place.
In the silence on the days the gym is empty, as the light pours through the square-paned windows and the hardwood glistens, Garner can re-live scenes from the movie.
On the days when the gym is bustling, filled with chatter as tour groups pass through, Garner talks. He talks about “Hoosiers,” the script, the characters, the story. How the movie was filmed in this gym where they stand.
And the more he talked — Garner took the job in 2015 — the more his talk became less about sports. The more he talked, the less it became about basketball and winning and losing and coaching.
The more it became about life.
He listened over and over again as visitors told him of the impact the movie had on their lives. What it taught them.
One day, Garner picked up a pen and from his inside job at The Hoosier Gym wrote a book on what the movie “Hoosiers” is really about.
Second chances and redemption
Garner first saw “Hoosiers” when the world first saw it, November 1986. He sat inside Castle Theatre, a now shuttered relic of the bustling Chrysler town of New Castle, the month the movie was released.
Garner was in his late 30s. He had graduated from Knightstown High in 1966, the final year the Panthers played in The Hoosier Gym. He watched in awe on the big screen as Hollywood took over the tiny court where he and his classmates had played.
He will never forget seeing Peg Mayhill, who was like a second mother to him, sitting in the bleachers as an extra.
“Hoosiers” was, no doubt, a mesmerizing movie. Sports and victory and perseverance at their best.
But Garner has uncovered something deeper in the movie: 11 very definite life lessons. The book, “Hoosiers: Eleven Life Lessons,” is short and sweet — 65 pages and 12 chapters.
The format: Replay scenes, characters and lines from the movie then detail the life lesson. Among them: trust, forgiveness, second chances and redemption.
Since the book published six months ago, “Sales have exceeded my wildest expectations,” said Garner. He isn’t, after all, a writer by trade.
Garner was still in high school when he got his start crafting words. It was 1965 and the late Tom Mayhill, longtime owner and publisher of the Knightstown Banner, let Garner cover a high school basketball game.
“In spite of that first disaster, that he destroyed with red ink, he continued to give me opportunities,” Garner writes in the book.
After a year of working with Mayhill and soaking in his wisdom and advice, Garner was told by Mayhill he should be a writer. This book, 55 years later, is his first attempt.
Garner said he hopes those who read the book and adopt the lessons “have the foundation for a life of value.”
“The 11 life lessons I discern might be different from yours,” he said. Which is why the 12th chapter of Garner’s book is titled, “You’re the Author,” an encouragement to readers to watch the movie and consider what they’ve learned.
“What lessons have I missed?” Garner writes. “It is time for you to put them in writing.”
What they’re saying about the book
Sam Chase, an Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer and real life “Hoosiers” star, led Knightstown to its first sectional title at just 14 years old.
After reading Garner’s book, Chase said it reminded him of the “values I followed to help me succeed not only as a basketball player but in life.”
“It also brought back memories of all the hours I spent practicing and playing in what is now the famous Hoosier Gym. I encourage you to read and take the lessons to heart.”
Brad Long, who played the character of basketball team captain “Buddy” Walker in “Hoosiers” said: “Bob has captured the essence of the lessons taught throughout the fabric of this movie. He is a true Hoosier.”
And from Mervin Kilmer, a 25-year Hoosier Gym volunteer whom Garner said “has been a consistent source of knowledge and was relentless in pushing me to write this book.”
“Life, yours and mine, from birth to death is impacted by a variety of people, thoughts and experiences. Some result in changing our lives. The movie “Hoosiers” and this book can (and) may change your life.”
Learn more about “Hoosiers: Eleven Life Lessons” or purchase the book.
Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: [email protected].
Building a common vision in Vanuatu for moral education
PORT VILA, Vanuatu — As Vanuatu celebrates its 40 years of independence and looks to the future, a national conversation about the direction of the education of children and youth is gaining momentum.
To contribute to these discussions, the Bahá’ís of the country recently brought together representatives of the Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Education, village chiefs, and different social actors to reflect together on the role of moral education in society.
Gregoire Nimbtik, Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office, expressed the sentiments of other participants, saying: “We wish to have a society where happiness is sustainable, where there is no disunity, where everyone lives in a peaceful environment, and where everyone cares for each other. The question is how can we build the capacity of our young ones and enable them to build this kind of society? Education has a vital role in this regard.”
This question has been at the heart of Bahá’í educational efforts in Vanuatu for decades, including literacy programs, formal schools, and initiatives at the grassroots that develop the capacity of children and youth to serve society.
Henry Tamashiro, a member of the Bahá’í community of Port Villa and one of the organizers of the event, says, “In discussions with village chiefs and community members about the challenges facing our country, we all arrive at one question: How can the moral character of the individual be elevated?
“Gatherings like this allow diverse segments of society to talk about a missing part of the educational system: what the traditional leaders call the education of the heart, educators call moral education, and faith communities refer to as spiritual education.”
Chief Ken Hivo of Freshwota, one of the largest localities in the Port Vila area, said at the meeting, “Moral education is of the utmost importance. Our present education system is often seen as no more than an instrument to prepare our children for employment and is focused on the education of the mind. But pure hearts are needed for an effectively functioning community. Spiritual principles need to guide a person. Societies that are governed solely by materialistic principles will only deteriorate further and further. But many of our social issues will disappear if spiritual principles also govern our communities.”
Andrea Hinge of the University of the South Pacific echoed this thought, stating: “This means having teachers who are not focused only on helping a child pass an exam, but also on teaching students about how to live with others in society.”
Representatives of the Bahá’í community at the gathering explained that when children learn about the concept of selfless service early on, they are able to make meaningful contributions to social progress from a young age. Among the many examples provided were efforts of youth engaged in Bahá’í educational initiatives who are managing conservation areas in the forests around their villages in order to preserve native species.
Looking to future gatherings, Mr. Tamashiro says that “This dialogue is opening a new door. Participants came to this meeting somewhat downhearted about the condition of society, but when they saw that they are not alone in their desire to address the challenges facing young people and that there is an effective path forward, everyone became very hopeful.”
