THIS Storm Bert wreaked havoc on transport services and brought devastating flooding to towns across the region. In the early hours of Saturday (November 23) morning, Storm Bert hit South Wales, and several flood alerts were triggered. The M48 Severn bridge was closed in both directions due to the strong wind which had a knock-on effect of 50-minute delays on the M4. The Met Office had issued a yellow weather warning for wind and rain. However, it was not until Sunday that the full force of the storm was felt. Yellow warning of rain affecting Wales A yellow weather warning is a familiar sight for the Argus readers, but on Sunday the devastating floods showed the real impact of the storm. In the early hours of Sunday, the M48 once again closed in both directions due to strong winds. There were several flood warnings issued with 50 red warnings and 60 amber alerts from Natural Resource Wales. Throughout the day, residents across Gwent and Monmouthshire saw increasingly shocking images and video footage as rivers burst their banks. The flooding took place across the region including but not limited to Risca, Ebbw Vale, Abertillery, Newport, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Abersychan and Blackwood. It may have felt like the real question was where wasn’t flooding, as road closure after road closure was announced. A map of all the flood warnings across Wales showed the national emergency taking place, which was even addressed by the First Minister of Wales herself. First Minister for Wales, Eluned Morgan, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), said: "Diolch to emergency services and council staff working hard to keep us safe during this awful weather and flooding. "Follow advice from your council, emergency services and Natural Resource Wales." Diolch to emergency services and council staff working hard to keep us safe during this awful weather and flooding. Diolch i'r rhai sy'n gweithio'n galed i ddiogelu ni. Cymerwch ofal a dilynwch gyngor lleol - follow advice from your council, emergency services and . An important message was issued by Gwent Police asking the public to abide by the road closure and not attempt to drive through floodwater. It was in the early morning, that within minutes a rugby club in Crosskeys Newport was hit by flash flooding. Cross Keys RFC says it is ‘heartbroken’ after it was hit by the devastating flash flooding at around 7.20am. Colin Vernal, 74, who runs the social club, was cleaning inside before the flood hit the premises. “I was in there at twenty past seven cleaning the club and there was not a drop of water, but by half past it was a job managing to get out of there.” He described the sound of floodwater hitting the building as loud as a ‘bomb going off’. The club previously flooded in 2019 and raised over £140,000 to repair damage to the furniture and carpets. The club is 'devastated' and heartbroken by the damage and how much this flood will set them back. In the morning, a local resident in Abergavenny witnessed the road completely flooded and what appeared to be a landslide at the Hardwick Roundabout. When the River Usk burst its banks over Castle Meadows in Abergavenny, the water rushed into the surrounding fields and roads. It was not just the roads that were flooded, as images showed a children’s play area at the Boating Lake park and garden in Cwmbran flooded. The flooding throughout Newport disrupted local bus services and train lines between Abergavenny and Pontypool were completely blocked. At around 10.19am photographs and videos of significant flooding on roads and residential streets in Abersychan began to emerge. The M48 Severn Crossing may have reopened at around 11.20am as winds died down, but the flooding continued to wreak havoc in towns across the region. At around 12.50, the River Ebbw at Tredegar Park in Newport began to breach its banks and residents received calls warning them of potential imminent flooding. In the early afternoon, a street in The Hawthorns in Caerleon was completely flooded, reported a local resident. In a video shared with the Argus, water levels can be seen so high that a skip floated towards parked cars at the Blackwood Rugby Club. A fundraiser has been set up to try and raise money to save the rugby club in Blackwood and a fundraiser for the Cross Keys RFC will be set up in a day or so. In Newport, an ominous picture shared by Mark Powis showed the gravestones at St Woolos Cemetery flooded with water.The outgoing US president Joe Biden administration’s H1B visa overhaul announced earlier this week will have a mixed impact on students, Indian IT professionals, business owners and Indian IT companies . Among the positive moves, the Dept of Homeland & Security (DHS) extended F1 visa validity for students seeking jobs on OPT by one year which will significantly ease the burden, immigration consultants and policy experts said. “We are supportive of foreign nationals transitioning from a student visa to an H-1B wherein they will be able to extend their postgraduation work permit to a year after they’ve filed their H-1B petition to prevent gaps in employment,” said Shivendra Singh, vice president - global trade development at India’s apex technology body Nasscom . Previously, the ‘cap-gap’ rule allowed F1 extension after OPT expiration date until October 1, which is the start of the fiscal year, only for petitioners whose H-1B applications were approved or pending, said Poorvi Chothani founder and managing partner of LawQuest, an immigration law firm headquartered in Florida. “This has now been extended to April 1 when the USCIS begins accepting H-1B cap-subject petitions for the new fiscal year, easing pressure on students,” she said. 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For instance, a data analyst must have a degree in data science or related fields. This will lend greater flexibility to job seekers in STEM, AI, and emerging roles. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories “However, burden is on the petitioner to explain how the degree(s) is/are directly related. More documentation may be required in H-1B petition filings as a result of the proposed rule,” said Singh. However, the new rules could be a sore point for Indian IT companies placing professionals on client sites in the US. DHS made it mandatory for consulting companies to justify the job role of the third party. For instance, if a company has hired an H1B candidate to work on a bank’s work location in New York for 1.5 years, the bank’s job role will be scrutinised for judging the eligibility of H1B and not that of the IT company. This means increased documentation, complexities and little flexibility to hire professionals with varied skill sets which is important for consulting companies. “Having a rule where it is third party’s degree requirement and not petitioning employer’s hiring requirement that will determine if it is a specialty occupation and the H-1B worker being a part of third party organizational hierarchy will make it difficult and increase the petitioner’s administrative burden and lead to greater RFEs (Request for evidence),” said Singh. Among other notable changes, site visits to verify the physical presence of the H1B applicant at work have been made legally binding. Founders or business owners who own more than 50% equity in a company can self-petition for H1B and their spouses are also allowed to work. Roles tied to research institutes are cap-exempt. Startups can hire researchers (in AI, healthcare, computer hardware) all year round. The new changes come into effect January 17 (three days before the new Trump administration takes over the Oval Office) and will impact the upcoming H1B ballot in March as the new administration cannot simply overwrite the executive order, LawQuest’s Chothani said. “There’s always a risk of challenging the order in Court, but, administratively, any changes will have to go through a consultation process. So we don’t see any near-term uncertainties in validity of the new rules,” she explained. “President Biden would not waste his last days in office to bring something which can be overturned that easily,” said Russell A. Stamets, partner at Delhi-based business law firm Circle of Counsels. “I feel the new rules better reward people who comply and more punishing for those who don’t. With increased scrutiny, the process will be faster for the DHS to skim through applications and replace dodgy applications with quality candidates. The 85,000 visa quota would still be awarded, with a greater likelihood that those are genuine visa applicants for legitimate businesses,” he said. In 2024, the USCIS received 479,953 H1B registrations, of which the eligible ones will enter the upcoming lottery ballot in March 2025. H-1B visa holders are primarily from India. In 2023, Indians made up 72.3% of the 386,000 H-1B visas issued. However, India’s top seven IT services companies including TCS, Wipro, Infosys, HCL have brought down their dependency on H1B employees by 56% in the last eight years. In the same period, use of the US’s premier work visa soared by 189% at Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Apple combined, an ET analysis showed.
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Russian dictator Vladimir Putin does not miss an opportunity to show off his hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile "Oreshnik." He emphasized that no one has a chance to shoot down this weapon. Putin said this during a "Direct Line" with Russians on Thursday, December 19. Instead, the Russian president "honestly" does not know why the missile has this name. "Oreshnik is a medium-range weapon, and medium-range weapons are 1000, 1500, 3000, and up to 5,500 kilometers in range. Now let's imagine that our system is located at a distance of 2,000 kilometers, and even an anti-missile located in Poland will not reach it . At the first site, the vulnerability is high. First of all, nothing will reach there, even if these positioning areas are not protected (but they are usually protected), nothing reaches, there are no such systems. And secondly, it takes time to fly that far, and we start deploying combat units in a few seconds. So there is no chance to shoot down these missiles," the war criminal boasted. Putin also spoke about Western experts who are discussing the "Oreshnik," saying that they should propose that Russia and the West conduct a "technological experiment ." To do this, the dictator said, they could identify a target in Kyiv, where the West could deploy all its air defense forces, and Russia could strike. He cynically emphasized that it would be a "high-tech duel ." As a reminder, Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin has called Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine a "movement ." He claims that "movement" begins when it gets "boring ." At the same time, the Kremlin leader avoided an uncomfortable question about the Kursk region, where the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue their operation. As OBOZ.UA reported , Putin made another statement about the "Oreshnik" medium-range missile system and embarrassed himself. In particular, he threatened the world with the "imminent start" of mass production of this complex. Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber . Do not fall for fakes!Wordle hints and answer for today, December 18, 2024: Solve Wordle #1278 easily