CLR Neurosthenics Logo LOS ANGELES , Dec. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Sports and recreational injuries send more than 3.5 million Americans to the hospital emergency room each year according to the National Safety Council. The problem is much greater in collegiate sports, where NCAA injury incident reports reached 1.3 million in 2022. Beyond soft tissue damage, these injuries include life-altering Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tears and Traumatic Brain Injuries. To reduce the occurrence and impact of sports-related injuries, CLR Neurosthenics today launched CLR Advantage TM , a groundbreaking solution that employs interactive software and a wearable, wireless sensor network to collect real-time neurophysiological data while athletes perform pre-programmed physical exercises, cognitive tests, reaction games and position drills. This data is then used to instantly generate reports that reveal hidden deficiencies, indicate player readiness, and guide training routines for injury prevention, performance optimization and rehabilitation. Designed by a team of leading sports neurophysiologists and biometric engineers, patent-pending CLR Advantage TM utilizes FDA-approved qEEG brain wave sensors and physiological monitors to capture a continuous stream of high-resolution data, including cortical power, heart rate, heart rate variability, respiration rate, trapezoidal tension, galvanic skin response and peripheral temperature. The solution then employs NASA technology to process biometric signals and report on neurophysiological capabilities, including brain connectivity, power, activation and symmetry during various physical tasks and mental exercises. CLR Advantage TM finally correlates event-marked physiologic data to reinforce neurologic observations. For example, data may indicate certain risk in an athlete that exhibits an elevated heart rate, neurologic asymmetry and qEEG inhibition during a single-leg balance exercise. CLR Advantage TM recently completed a two-year clinical trial with 177 NCAA Division I athletes at the University of Cincinnati . Performed in partnership with Select Medical at the University's Sports Medicine Department, the study compared the neurophysiological performance of healthy athletes with those suffering from ACL injuries. Results from the study, which continues to assess injured athletes through various stages of rehabilitation, were published in the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy . To supplement ongoing research, CLR Advantage TM is currently employed by the NFL Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society (PFATS) to study ACL injury propensity through assessments that include a variety of dynamic force exercises. "For the first time, we now have a better understanding of exactly how the brain is impacted by an acute injury," said Robert Mangine, Senior Athletic Director of Sports Medicine at the University of Cincinnati and Residency Director for NovaCare Rehabilitation. "CLR Advantage TM allows us to look at brain activity as athletes progress through the rehabilitation, then use that data and musculoskeletal measures to determine a safe return to play." The Microsoft Azure cloud-powered CLR Advantage TM platform provides an end-to-end, HIPAA-compliant solution for operators to organize teams, create athlete profiles, schedule appointments, conduct assessments, monitor live biometric data, and generate comprehensive analytic reports. Offered on a subscription basis, the solution is available for demonstration at CLR Neurosthenics' Los Angeles Assessment Center. https://clradvantage.com/ For additional information contact: Mark O'Bryan (424) 256-7264 mark.obryan@clradvantage.com 1 https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/144/5/e20192759/38190/Soccer-Injuries-in-Children-and-Adolescents 2 https://perma.cc/9EG6-6TBJ ; Robert L. Parisien et. al., Implementation of an Injury Prevention Program in NCAA Division I Athletics Reduces Injury-Related Health Care Costs. 9 Orthopedic J. of Sports Med. (2023). https://ijspt.org/task-driven-neurophysiological-qeeg-baseline-performance-capabilities-in-healthy-uninjured-division-i-college-athletes/ View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clr-neurosthenics-launches-neurophysiological-assessment-platform-to-help-prevent-sports-injuries-optimize-performance-and-improve-rehabilitation-302334112.html SOURCE CLR NeurosthenicsRobert F. Kennedy Jr.’s false claims linking autism to childhood vaccinations are receiving new scrutiny now that President-elect Donald Trump has selected him to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, a sprawling agency with a budget of $1.7 trillion that oversees research into both autism and vaccines. The myth that autism is caused by childhood vaccines — proposed in 1998 by a British doctor who was later banned from practicing medicine in the United Kingdom — has been thoroughly debunked . Hundreds of studies have found vaccines to be safe . The World Health Organization estimates that over the past 50 years, immunizations have saved 154 million lives around the world. Kennedy, who espouses a number of health-related conspiracy theories , has pointed to vaccines to explain the substantial rise in autism diagnoses in recent decades, which have ballooned from an estimated 1 in 150 children in 2000 to 1 in 36 today. Research suggests that much of that increase is due to increasing awareness and screening for the condition; changing definitions of autism to include milder conditions on the spectrum that weren’t recognized in previous years; as well as advances in diagnostic technology. “For a very long time, the anti-vaccine movement has been exploiting families of autistic people, promoting a market for pseudo-scientific treatments that don’t provide the answers they’re looking for and that can expose autistic people to real harm,” said Ari Ne’eman, co-founder of the nonprofit Autistic Self Advocacy Network and an assistant professor of health policy and management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “More discredited conspiracy theories linking autism and vaccines are not the answer.” Timothy Caulfield, research director at the University of Alberta’s Health Law Institute in Canada, who studies health misinformation, said that people often are more willing to believe conspiracy theories about conditions such as autism, whose causes are complex and not fully understood, than diseases with clear causes. People seem less inclined to speculate, for example, about alternative explanations for Down syndrome, which causes intellectual disabilities and has long been known to be caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21. “It’s really a shame because there are vulnerable families [of people with autism] who need our support,” said Judith Miller, a clinical psychologist and senior scientist and training director at the Center for Autism Research at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Every dollar and hour spent trying to debunk a conspiracy theory is a dollar and an hour lost that could have been spent trying to understand how to help families.” A complex condition Finding the causes of autism is complicated, because it’s not a single disorder, said Manish Arora, a professor of environmental medical and climate science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. “Autism is a spectrum, not a single narrow disease,” Arora said. “It’s many, many things under one umbrella.” Although people diagnosed with autism often have similar strengths and challenges, “there are many paths to autism and many presentations of autism,” Miller said. Scientists have found a variety of risk factors for autism — most of which exist before birth — but there is no single cause for a neurological and developmental condition that affects how people interact with others, communicate, learn and behave. A number of the traits sometimes seen in people with autism — such as being sensitive to loud noises, for example, or finding it difficult to interpret social cues — are also found in people who have not been diagnosed with autism. Doctors diagnose autism based on a person’s behavior, noting that there is no simple test for the condition, as there is for Covid or diabetes, said Arora, founder and CEO of a start-up company that researches biomarkers for autism and other neurological conditions. Finding the cause of an infectious disease — such as influenza, which is caused by the flu virus — is much more straightforward. While researchers continue to study the factors that influence the development of autistic traits, “the one thing we know doesn’t cause autism is vaccines,” said Catherine Lord, a psychologist and researcher at the Center for Autism Research and Treatment at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. Genetic vulnerability Doctors have long known that genes play a large role in autism, simply by noting that autism can run in families. For example, in identical twins — who share all of their DNA — if one twin has autism, the other usually does, as well. In the case of fraternal twins — who share about half their DNA — if one fraternal twin has autism, the chance that the other will have autism ranges from 53% to 67%, according to an analysis of research studies. Scientists have identified more than 100 genes related to autism, Miller said, and genes are believed to play a role in 60% to 80% of cases. “The genetics of autism have never been better understood,” said Dr. Gregory Cejas, medical director of the Autism Clinical Center and Fragile X Clinic at the Washington University School of Medicine. “We’re making leaps and bounds about known genetic causes of autism.” Yet genes clearly don’t explain every case of autism. Autism is very different from conditions like sickle cell anemia or cystic fibrosis, which are caused by a single gene. Scientists believe that people develop autistic traits due to a combination of genetic vulnerability and environmental exposures, Lord said. “People have found many, many different genetic patterns associated with autism, but none of them are only associated with autism and none of them are always associated with autism,” Lord said. For example, fragile X syndrome — caused by a mutated gene on the X chromosome — is the most common known cause of autism. But only a fraction of children with the genetic mutation actually develop autism, Miller said. It’s possible that this mutation leaves some people more vulnerable to developing autistic characteristics, while others with the same mutations don’t develop autistic traits, because they are shielded by protective factors that have not yet been identified. Some people blamed the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine with autism because symptoms of the condition often occur at around 12 to 15 months of age, the same time toddlers get that immunization. But Miller notes that “most of the genetic conditions that affect our life and health aren’t apparent at birth. Symptoms or characteristics won’t show up until later, but the genetic code will have been with us the whole time.” Prenatal vulnerability Many of the known risk factors for autistic characteristics occur before birth or at the time of delivery, Arora said. Babies who experience complications at birth , such as their umbilical cord becoming wrapped around their neck, have a higher risk of autism. So do babies born prematurely , perhaps because of something that happened in the womb. Children are also slightly more likely to be diagnosed with autism if they have older fathers and possibly if they have older mothers, Miller said. It’s not clear if something in the biology of older parents causes a child to have a higher risk of autism, or if socioeconomic issues could play a role. It’s possible that older parents have better access to health care, making it more likely for their child to receive an autism diagnosis. A mother’s health influences her child’s autism risk in several ways, according to multiple studies: Children have a greater chance of being diagnosed with autism if their mothers were exposed to high levels of air pollution or developed a serious infection , such as the flu or pneumonia, while pregnant. While Ne’eman, of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, said he’s not opposed to basic biological research on autism or its causes, he said those studies do little to help people with autism overcome the barriers they face in their everyday lives. He notes that only 8.4% of the $419 million spent on autism research in the United States is devoted to support and services for people with autism. “We need an autism research agenda,” he said, “that reflects the true priorities of autistic people and our families: supports across the lifespan and inclusion in the community.” This article first appeared on NBCNews.com . Read more from NBC News here: Hyundai announces recall of over 42,000 vehicles due to wiring issue that can cause them to roll away How ‘Wicked’ the movie compares to ‘Wicked’ the musical Matthew Perry recalls 'scary' confrontation with Jennifer Aniston: 'She was the one'
Electrovaya Reports Fiscal Year 2024 Results
(Reuters) – A crypto venture recently unveiled by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his new Middle East envoy, billionaire Steve Witkoff, has partnered with a crypto platform that authorities and financial experts say has been used by criminals and Iran-backed militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. World Liberty Financial Inc, founded by the Witkoff family two months before November’s U.S. election with Trump as a financial beneficiary, presents concerns over ethics and conflicts of interest, say six specialists in U.S. government ethics. Among their biggest concerns is World Liberty’s new partner: Tron crypto platform. Quicker and cheaper than Bitcoin, the Tron network has overtaken its rival as a vehicle for crypto transfers associated with groups designated as terror organizations by Israel, the United States and other countries, Reuters reported in 2023, citing interviews with seven financial crime experts and cryptocurrency investigations specialists. Tron announced last month it was investing $30 million in World Liberty. Tron’s founder, Chinese-born entrepreneur Justin Sun, will join the Trump-Witkoff venture as an advisor, Sun and World Liberty said on social media platform X. The British Virgin Islands-registered Tron is now World Liberty’s largest investor, Sun said. Crypto seizures announced by the Israeli security services since 2021 have frequently singled out Tron’s use by militants, including Hamas whose 2023 attack on Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and triggered the Gaza war. Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBTCF), which is responsible for such seizures, froze 186 Tron wallets since July 2021, saying they were used by a “designated terrorist organization” or for a “severe terror crime.” Of those, Israeli authorities linked 84 Tron wallets to Hamas or Hamas allies, including Islamic Jihad, 39 to Hezbollah and 63 to unspecified terrorist groups or money changers. The most recent Tron seizure was announced on March 28. Reuters could not independently determine Tron’s use by militant groups, and the NBTCF did not provide evidence for its assertions or respond to requests for more details. Hamas and Hezbollah did not respond to requests for comment. Tron, which profits from transaction fees on its network, told Reuters its technology “has attracted both lawful users and those with illicit motives” but did not specifically respond to claims it has been used by militants. The company “has taken proactive measures to address the risk of illicit activities on its network,” a Tron spokesperson said in response to questions for this story. A collaboration with law enforcement launched in September froze $70 million in illicit funds, the spokesperson said. Sun, the founder, did not respond to a request for comment. On the sidelines of a crypto conference in Abu Dhabi, Eric Trump told Reuters that the use of crypto by criminal groups was “everybody’s foremost concern” but said traditional financial institutions were also used to funnel “bad money.” “Anything can be manipulated if used by the wrong people, and you have to crack down on it,” Trump’s second son said, adding that the crypto industry will do “a great job” of policing itself when it comes to illicit flows. The U.S. Treasury Department has also seized Tron wallets, including an account linked to a group that the department said raised money for Hamas in the wake of the 2023 attack on Israel. In March, the Treasury leveled sanctions against a Lebanon-based money changer who it said provided Hezbollah officials with crypto accounts, including a Tron wallet, to receive funds from Iran. Tron’s investment in World Liberty raised concerns among among ethics experts. “There are red flags all over this,” said Kathleen Clark, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in government ethics. Her concerns include the significant size of Tron’s investment in World Liberty, whether Trump could benefit financially from it and the alleged use of Tron by militants including Hamas and Hezbollah. She also highlighted an investigation of Tron founder Sun by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2023, the SEC charged Sun with fraud, accusing him of artificially inflating trading volume and concealing payment to celebrities to promote his companies. Sun, who is based in Switzerland and is a citizen of Grenada, said the SEC charges “lack merit.” The case is ongoing. Clark questioned whether World Liberty’s close relationship with Sun would pose a conflict of interest for Trump once his administration takes over the SEC in January. Spokespeople for Trump and his transition team did not directly respond to questions about Trump’s financial ties to World Liberty, the Tron investment and potential conflicts. “President Trump didn’t get into politics for profit,” said transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt. “He’s fighting because he loves the people of this country and wants to make America great again.” Militant groups and criminals like Tron because it gives users the option to conceal their identities, charges low fees and can be converted into cash easily, according to some crypto experts. POTENTIAL CONFLICTS Witkoff co-founded World Liberty and has a stake in a company — WC Digital Fi, LLC — that is entitled to some of World Liberty’s revenues, according to the company’s terms. He is a close friend of Trump’s and a donor to his Republican presidential campaign. He plans to put all his investments in a “blind trust,” said a person familiar with Witkoff’s plans who declined to be identified. The source, however, said Witkoff would retain ownership of his assets. Typically, in a blind trust, an outside manager controls an official’s assets, selling off those that pose a conflict and reinvesting the proceeds into investments unknown to the owner. Witkoff declined to comment. World Liberty did not respond to requests for comment about potential ethical issues and Tron’s investment in the company. Even with a trust, World Liberty sets up potential conflicts of interest, the ethics specialists told Reuters. Witkoff’s Middle East policy recommendations could be affected by what he sees as best for World Liberty as opposed to the United States, they said. Even if Witkoff sets up a trust and isn’t involved in World Liberty’s day-to-day operations, potential conflicts exist so long as he maintains a financial stake in the company, said Richard Painter, ethics counsel to former president George W. Bush and a University of Minnesota professor. “Whether you’re involved in the management of the company or not, that’s not relevant at all. What’s relevant is if you own a financial interest that could be directly impacted by your government work,” said Painter. Trump also faces potential conflicts from World Liberty, the experts said. Trump is listed as “chief crypto advocate” on World Liberty’s website and is entitled to a cut of its revenues, according to the company’s terms and conditions. World Liberty sells a proprietary token that cannot be traded, those terms and conditions say, unlike Bitcoin and other crypto tokens. Trump and other unnamed “affiliates” are entitled to 75% of some World Liberty revenues, according to the terms, raising the possibility of people buying World Liberty coins to try to gain favor with him. “Is this an alternative way of ingratiating yourself with Trump?” Clark said of World Liberty. Trump’s business dealings drew close scrutiny in his first term. While he was in office, at least 20 governments, including Saudi Arabia and China, collectively spent more than $7.8 million at his hotels and other properties, according to a report published by congressional Democrats in January. Trump did not face legal consequences for that spending. The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for information on what steps he would take to address any conflicts from World Liberty. World Liberty’s connection with Trump features heavily on the company’s website. A picture of Trump, ear bandaged after the July assassination attempt on him, greets visitors on the home page. The first people listed as members of the World Liberty team are Trump and his three sons, Don Jr., Eric and Barron, who are described as “Web3 ambassadors.” Trump himself, along with relatives and associates, unveiled the business during a live event on X in September. Don Jr. and Barron did not respond to requests for comment. Through World Liberty, Trump and his family could also benefit from possible regulatory changes that his administration makes involving crypto, the experts said. During the campaign, Trump vowed to name a new SEC chair to replace Gary Gensler, who took on the crypto industry with various lawsuits. Last week, he tapped crypto-friendly Washington lawyer Paul Atkins for the role. Witkoff’s sons, Alex and Zach, are also listed as co-founders of World Liberty. They did not respond to requests for comment. Eric Trump told Reuters he is “very involved” in World Liberty. If foreign governments or sovereign wealth funds were to invest in World Liberty, that could place Witkoff and Trump in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s “emoluments” clause, designed to thwart corruption and improper influence on government, said Larry Noble, a professor at American University and former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission. The clause bars federal officials from accepting gifts or other advantages from foreign governments without congressional approval. Diplomats said they were surprised when Witkoff, a New York real-estate investor, was named special Middle East envoy on Nov. 12 given his lack of foreign policy experience. He will assume the job at a time of heightened regional tensions, including the Gaza conflict, turmoil in Syria and the risk of a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran. Witkoff donated $250,000 to the pro-Trump super PAC spending group MAGA Inc in December 2023. He is worth at least $1 billion, according to Forbes. Already, the lines between Witkoff’s business venture and his diplomatic role are blurring. Witkoff spoke on Monday at the Abu Dhabi crypto conference. The program listed him as Trump’s special envoy to the region and also mentioned the crypto business in his biography. “A forward-thinking entrepreneur, Steve is now focused on the intersection of real estate, Bitcoin, and crypto,” the conference website read. Those attending paid as much as $9,999 to access special sessions, which were closed to the media. Tron’s Sun was also listed as a speaker. Witkoff did not respond to questions about the conference. SPECIAL ENVOY, FEW RULES Witkoff’s new role of special envoy is not defined by law and may not require confirmation by the U.S. Senate. The incoming administration could define him as a “special government employee,” a designation meant for temporary roles, said Scott Greytak, director of advocacy at Transparency International’s Washington office. In that case, “unlike regular government employees, he can continue receiving outside income without limits,” he said. “However, he must file a financial disclosure form and cannot take any official actions that would financially benefit himself.” Witkoff should also sign an agreement with the State Department that he will not talk with foreign government officials about crypto while on official business, said Meredith McGehee, an independent ethicist and former policy director of nonprofit watchdog the Campaign Legal Center. “That should be a wall. You can’t say: ‘By the way, what’s your government going to do on crypto?’” McGehee said. Special envoys under Biden, former President Barack Obama and Trump’s own first administration were typically not from the business sector, Reuters found in a review of the emissaries. None had founded a major company linked to a presidential candidate weeks before the election. Some had extensive investments in the private sector, however. Multimillionaire John Kerry divested assets identified by government ethics officers as potentially conflicting with his role as Biden’s special climate envoy, according to a 2021 certificate of divestiture from the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Trump has appointed a close business associate before. In 2016, he tapped the Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, Jason Greenblatt, as Special Representative for International Negotiations, a key role in Israeli-Palestinian talks. Greenblatt told Reuters he left Trump’s company before taking up his White House role. He did not recall whether he sold his investments before working as a special envoy, but said he would have followed applicable rules.
Custom-designed helmets that stave off major brain injuries. Mobile blood banks and preliminary surgery on the battlefield. Dog tags that broadcast medical data. Evacuation by helicopter to hospitals, measured in minutes. Fentanyl lollipops to ease the pain. As Israel plows into the second year of open-ended war on several fronts, its military doctors have been innovating trauma care on the fly and grimly boast a record survival rate. That, in turn, may help shore up public support in Israel for a conflict that has inflicted the country’s worst losses in decades. “We accrue battlefield knowledge and apply it and improve on it even as the fighting continues,” said Lt.-Col. Ofer Almog, head of technological development for the Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps. The human cost on the other side has been devastating — 44,000 dead in Gaza and 3,000 in Lebanon, many of them civilians. Of Israeli soldiers who sustain wounds in the Gaza Strip or southern Lebanon that require urgent treatment, 6.9 percent die, the corps says — a case fatality rate, or CFR, less than half that of Israel’s last major war, in 2006. It also compares favorably to the CFRs that U.S. forces suffered from similar kinds of attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan — 10 percent and 8.6 percent, according to a 2019 study published by the U.S. military’s Joint Trauma System. An inherent advantage the Israelis have is in the proximity of hospitals. The average time it takes to evacuate a Gaza casualty to a trauma center is 66 minutes, the corps says. The record was 17 minutes. But intervention begins beforehand, sometimes within seconds of the injury, administered by doctors, paramedics or medics deployed with every IDF combat company. Not far behind is an armored ambulance equipped with a specially cooled blood-bank, for type-O transfusions in large quantities. “Our staff in the field are even equipped to do intraosseous infusions — directly into the bone marrow — when a soldier’s veins aren’t accessible,” Almog said. Kyle Remick, a retired U.S. Army colonel and now trauma chief at Meritus Medical Center in Hagerstown, Maryland, described such “scoop and run” evacuations and rapid hemorrhage control as critical factors in saving lives.
Duke of York ‘ceased all contact’ with spy-accused man after concerns raised
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By Charles Hymas A "close confidant" of the Duke of York is an alleged Chinese spy who has been banned from entering the UK on national security grounds. The man, known only as H6, was once a junior civil servant in China and was so close to Prince Andrew that he had been told he could act on the royal's behalf when dealing with potential investors in China, according to a secret hearing. He was also invited to the Duke's birthday party in 2020, and was described by the judges overseeing the case as a " close confidant of the Duke ". READ MORE: 'Worst' thing Tim Davies was forced to 'battle through' live on air However, the Home Office decided to exclude H6, aged 50, from the UK in July 2023 after MI5 deemed him to be an agent who had engaged in "covert and deceptive activity" on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that he posed a threat to national security. A letter from a senior adviser to the Duke was found on H6's phone, stating that he was authorised to act on behalf of the royal in engagements with potential partners and investors in China. H6 challenged this, but a special immigration commission has now ruled that Suella Braverman, the home secretary at the time, was justified in her decision to ban him from the UK. For a daily dose of 9honey, subscribe to our newsletter here . In their 53-page ruling, the judges said that the Duke could have been made "vulnerable" to the misuse of H6's influence. In a ruling on Thursday, Mr Justice Bourne, Judge Stephen Smith and Sir Stewart Eldon said: "The secretary of state was entitled to conclude that the applicant represented a risk to the national security of the United Kingdom and that she was entitled to conclude that his exclusion was justified and proportionate." The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) initially granted H6 anonymity but this was lifted by the judges to take effect from Thursday (December 12). READ MORE: The one place you should never take your dog for a walk H6 appealed the lifting of the anonymity order and was granted "interim relief", meaning that it will be decided by the High Court at a future date whether he should be named. The SIAC hearing was told that the contents of the businessman's mobile telephone were downloaded when he was stopped under counter-terrorism laws at a UK border in 2021. The mobile's contents revealed that the Duke authorised the man to set up an international financial initiative known as the Eurasia Fund to engage with potential partners and investors in China. The phone contained a March 2021 letter from Dominic Hampshire, a senior adviser to the Duke, confirming the businessman could act on behalf of the royal in engagements with potential partners and investors in China. FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE : Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details. The letter states: "I also hope that it is clear to you where you sit with my principal and indeed his family. You should never underestimate the strength of that relationship ... outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on." It added that after a meeting with the Duke, they had "wisely navigated our way around former private secretaries and we have found a way to carefully remove those people who we don't completely trust". It said: "Under your guidance, we found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the house in Windsor." The immigration judges were told that in a briefing for the home secretary in July 2023, officials claimed H6 had been in a position to generate relationships between prominent UK figures and senior Chinese officials "that could be leveraged for political interference purposes". They also said that H6 had downplayed his relationship with the Chinese state, which combined with his relationship with the Duke represented a threat to national security. At a hearing in July, the specialist tribunal heard that the businessman was told by an advisor to the Duke that he could act on his behalf when dealing with potential investors in China and that H6 had been invited to Andrew's birthday party in 2020. They said: "The applicant won a significant degree, one could say an unusual degree, of trust from a senior member of the Royal family who was prepared to enter into business activities with him. "That occurred in a context where, as the contemporaneous documents record, the Duke was under considerable pressure and could be expected to value the applicant's loyal support. "It is obvious that the pressures on the Duke could make him vulnerable to the misuse of that sort of influence. "That does not mean that the home secretary could be expected to exclude from the UK any Chinese businessman who formed a commercial relationship with the Duke or with any other member of the Royal family." In 2020, the Duke found himself under increasing pressure following the disastrous Newsnight interview about his connections with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted paedophile who died in 2019. He was effectively sacked as a working member of the Royal family, and stripped of all honorary military titles and patronages. The Duke is understood to have paid about $US12 million (approx. $18.9 million) to settle the case brought against him by Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of raping and abusing her three times in 2001 when she was 17. The Duke vehemently denies Ms Giuffre's claims. King Charles is thought to have funded the Duke after he left public life, with a reported annual allowance of £1 million (approx. $2 million) per year. However, the King is understood to have severed the allowance earlier this year. Recently, he has been involved in wrangling with his brother over whether he has sufficient funds to continue living at Royal Lodge. As the UK's special representative for trade and investment, the Duke was said to have particularly close ties to China, visiting the country on several occasions between 2004 and 2011 when he stepped down amid criticism over his friendship with Epstein. In October 2014, he returned to Beijing, where he opened a campus at Harrow International School. In 2014, he also called on British businesses to grasp opportunities offered by China, telling the BBC they needed to be less polite, more competitive, "more bullish" and embrace the Chinese market. In 2015, he played a high-profile role during an incoming state visit by Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, joining the CCP leader on multiple engagements. The three judges said that H6 had enjoyed a private life in the UK, which had been described as the businessman's "second home", adding: "He has settled status, a home and extensive business interests in the United Kingdom. He was regarded as a close confidant of the Duke." The judges continued the home secretary was "rationally entitled to decide" that there was a potential to leverage the relationship, adding H6 was "not candid" about his links to the CCP. © Telegraph Media Group Limited 2024Featured Stories Lifestyle Philacatessen Synagogue Spotlight Andrew Guckes | Staff Writer Andrew Altman is the president of Keneseth Israel on Old York Road in Elkins Park, a role he has occupied for three years. Altman and his husband joined the congregation in 2007 and he has continuously upped his involvement since then. Altman loves the KI community and looks forward to dedicating his time to its betterment each day. With that being said, he is perfectly happy to be honest when asked how it is that he ended up as president. “I’m not sure,” he laughed. “That’s a whole investigation of its own!” While he doesn’t remember exactly how he ended up in KI’s Oval Office, Altman said that the reasons his family joined the synagogue as members are still clear to him. He said that for him and his husband, who isn’t Jewish, they prioritized a welcoming community that wouldn’t question their identities or backgrounds. “What we felt was just a real natural embrace when we walked through those doors. We were coming in the door as an interfaith, same-sex couple with an adopted baby, so we weren’t sure how we would be seen. We were ready to fight for our family and our friends, and we never had to,” he said. “We came in to open arms. What I have taken from our cantor, Amy Levy, is something she used to say about KI having so many different doors for people to walk through, so they could find what makes sense to them.” The idea of different options appealing to different people, with none being more valid than any other, is essential to the environment that has been cultivated at KI over the decades. Around 650 families take part in a litany of activities that include things ranging from a presentation and discussion on a formative figure in the American abolitionist movement to regular teen club meetings with dinner and educational components. “We have events that address spirituality, simcha, culture, music, arts, and social justice and social action, and it all just brings us together,” Altman said. Keneseth Israel brings in classical music concerts four times a year and has several choirs and music programs run by the cantor and men’s and women’s groups. In the KI lobby is the Temple Judea museum, with thousands of items and rotating exhibits on Jewish history and culture. For Keneseth Israel, another key emphasis is on making sure interfaith couples are welcomed, with no exceptions. This tradition started before Altman and his family joined and will continue after they are gone, but the current president said he is thrilled to get to be a part of that tradition as a member of that very community. “When [my family] first [joined], it was a question for us: How are we going to be seen as a couple? How’s [my husband] going to be seen individually? But frankly, I think there were, until very recently, a lot of people who didn’t know he wasn’t Jewish, because he was involved and engaged and we don’t ask,” Altman said. “We have people who were brought up Orthodox and reform and conservative, that doesn’t matter either.” In fact, Altman said, oftentimes he sees a situation in which the Jewish parent initiates the spouse’s shift to the religion, but soon enough the onus has completely shifted to the convert. “The person who wasn’t brought up Jewish is oftentimes the one who is driving the kids to religious school or being more active on the committee or going to an event or something like that,” he said. “All of us are here to live a Jewish life and promote Jewish values.” The temple’s promotion of Jewish values is in part exemplified by Keneseth Israel’s Hamotzi program, which is in its 10th year of addressing food insecurity in the community. It started as a single event, with five or ten people going out in Philadelphia and inviting people to attend a free dinner. A handful attended, which was enough for the congregation to go all in. A decade later, KI serves about 300 dinners a month and has a crew of dedicated volunteers who donate, prepare and serve meals to those who need them. “We’re in discussion with a local food bank to partner with, which is very exciting. That attracted over 100 volunteers a month, and it works like clockwork at this point,” Altman said. Looking ahead, the KI community is getting ready for the annual Spring Celebration, which is the shul’s largest fundraiser of the year. This year, the event will honor the Hamotzi program and leadership team. There are raffles, dancing, games, and food at this event, which Altman said is regularly a highlight of the programming schedule. Keneseth Israel has been a staple of the city’s Jewish community since the James K. Polk administration, and Altman knows that as president he is largely responsible for continuing to advance the shul’s reputation as a beloved center for Jews of all backgrounds. “The area that we’re in is a very strong Jewish corridor, and our philosophy is that we want to be working closely with everyone else while we’re all strong, because obviously, nationwide, there’s a lot of synagogues shrinking or closing,” Altman said. “We’re in conversation with as many people as possible about more collaboration, more space sharing, more opportunities for union and merger. And so that’s one of our very biggest priorities: to work together.” [email protected] TAGS Congregation Keneseth Israel Elkins Park Old York Road Philadelphia
The Duke of York has said he “ceased all contact” with the businessman accused of being a Chinese spy when concerns were first raised about him. Andrew met the individual through “official channels” with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”, a statement from his office said. The businessman – known only as H6 – lost an appeal over a decision to bar him from entering the UK on national security grounds. He brought a case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) after then-home secretary Suella Braverman said he should be excluded from the UK in March 2023. H6 was described as a “close confidante” of The Duke. Judges were told that in a briefing for the home secretary in July 2023, officials claimed H6 had been in a position to generate relationships between prominent UK figures and senior Chinese officials “that could be leveraged for political interference purposes”. They also said that H6 had downplayed his relationship with the Chinese state, which combined with his relationship with Andrew, 64, represented a threat to national security. A statement from Andrew’s office said: “The Duke of York followed advice from His Majesty’s Government and ceased all contact with the individual after concerns were raised. “The Duke met the individual through official channels with nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed. “He is unable to comment further on matters relating to national security.” At a hearing in July, the specialist tribunal heard that the businessman was told by an adviser to Andrew that he could act on the duke’s behalf when dealing with potential investors in China, and that H6 had been invited to Andrew’s birthday party in 2020. A letter referencing the birthday party from the adviser, Dominic Hampshire, was discovered on H6’s devices when he was stopped at a port in November 2021. In a ruling on Thursday, Mr Justice Bourne, Judge Stephen Smith and Sir Stewart Eldon, dismissed the challenge.ISLAMABAD: Local mobile manufacturing in Pakistan, bolstered by Chinese mobile companies, is thriving and now meets 94% of the country’s demand. This growth is attributed to the government’s strategic regulatory initiatives aimed at sustaining sectoral expansion and innovation. Chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Retired Maj. Gen. Hafeez Ur Rehman HI (M), presented PTA’s Annual Report 2024 to Senate Chairman Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, highlighting recent developments in the IT and telecom sectors. He emphasized the Authority’s commitment to foster technological advancements, implement online safety measures, safeguard consumer rights, and promote fair competition. According to the report, the telecom sector generated record revenue of Rs955 billion in FY 2023-24, a 17% increase over FY 2022-23, despite economic challenges. Cellular mobile services now reach 91% of the population, while 4G services cover 81%. Total telecom subscribers reached 196 million by September 2024, Gwadar Pro reported on Tuesday. The number of broadband subscribers rose to 142.3 million from 127.6 million in June 2023. Average mobile internet speeds improved by 28%, increasing from 15.65 Mbps to 20.02 Mbps. Data usage grew by 24.2%, reaching 25,141 terabytes in FY 2023-24, while broadband penetration increased to 58.4% compared to 53.6% in 2023. “During FY 2023-24, 29.6 million mobile devices were locally manufactured, meeting 94% of the country’s demand,” the report stated. The local manufacturing/assembling has also created 60,000 jobs for the locals. According to the PTA website, during the first 10 months of 2024, Pakistan locally manufactured or assembled 22.59 million mobile devices. Of these, 13.86 million were smartphones, while 8.73 million were Second Generation Mobile (2G) or GSM phones. In comparison, only 1.17 million mobile phones were commercially imported during this period. Chinese brands led the local manufacturing industry, with Infinix producing 2.79 million devices, followed by iTel with 2.75 million, VGO Tel with 2.43 million, Vivo with 2.13 million, TECNO with 2.03 million, Redmi with 1.89 million, Realme with 1.35 million, and G’Five with 1.09 million. South Korea’s Samsung manufactured 0.98 million devices, while Nokia produced 0.96 million phones locally. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );
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