In their old ridings, Atlantic Canada’s Liberal and Conservative heavyweights lend a hand to newcomers – The Globe and Mail

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The Northern Pulp mill looms in the distance on Front Street in Pictou, N.S., part of the federal riding of Central Nova.

Darren Calabrese/The Globe and Mail

When 28-year-old political newcomer Kody Blois won the federal Liberal nomination in Kings-Hants in May, he immediately sought the endorsement of former MP Scott Brison.

Mr. Brison, who was unbeatable in this sprawling rural riding outside Halifax for more than 20 years, until his retirement early this year, did more than give him just that. He has canvassed door to door with Mr. Blois, introduced him to the local Liberal base and taught him the art of campaigning in small Maritime towns where family and community connections matter a lot.

Mr. Blois knows well that without Mr. Brisons support, getting to Ottawa would be much more difficult.

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Scott Brison has been my MP since as long as Ive been aware of federal politics. You cant go anywhere in this riding without running into people who know him. He has so much brand recognition, said Mr. Blois after an all-candidates debate at a local fire hall.

In rural Nova Scotia, loyalty to individual politicians runs deep. Thats true from Kings-Hants to Central Nova, where former Tory cabinet minister Peter MacKay has been helping Conservative candidate George Canyon win over voters surprised at the country stars appointment by the party.

In this election, old-guard politicians across the province, from Bill Casey to Rodger Cuzner to Mark Eyking, are stepping aside to make way for new contenders.

Theyre quietly guiding the next generation of candidates, passing on decades of experience while helping them prepare for local debates or introducing them to influential supporters in their ridings.

But theyre also wary of inserting themselves too much in local campaigns.

New candidates need to learn things on their own and step out from the shadow of the MP they want to replace, Mr. Cuzner said. In his riding of Cape Breton-Canso, hes helped where he can, but newcomer Mike Kelloway has also tried to do things his own way, bringing in a younger crop of volunteers to run his campaign.

Weve been around such a long time that a lot of the older volunteers have also said its time to step back and let some younger people get involved and carry the torch, Mr. Cuzner said. Ill do what I can to help Mike be successful. But he knows hes got to go out and make his own mark. He has to find his own way."

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Clockwise from top left: Scott Brison, then-Liberal MP for Kings-Hants, in the House of Commons in 2018; Kody Blois, the new Liberal candidate for Kings-Hants, with Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau in Elmsdale, N.S., this past August; Peter MacKay, then Conservative MP for Central Nova, in 2009; George Canyon, current Conservative candidate in Central Nova, at the 2013 Canadian Country Music Awards in Edmonton.

The Canadian Press

Mr. MacKay has introduced Mr. Canyon to the local Conservatives base, offered tips on how to talk policy and has been a behind-the-scenes coach in a riding he served for almost two decades, guiding the rookie through a tight race with Liberal MP Sean Fraser. The riding has traditionally been Mr. MacKays family fiefdom, with 40 years of representation between himself and his father, Elmer, a Mulroney-era cabinet minister.

Mr. MacKay whose supporters are reportedly laying the groundwork for a possible Conservative leadership bid lives in Toronto now but said he was asked to run for the Tories again in Central Nova. With three kids under six, though, he said the timing wasnt right. Instead, he encouraged Mr. Canyon to run after the local nominee stepped down and the party went looking for a star candidate to drop in.

Not everyone here likes how that happened.

People think its a joke. He came second in a singing contest, moved to Nashville or wherever, changed his name and now hes back as a hero, said Candace MacDonald, the owner of a smoking supply store in New Glasgow. New Glasgow is a town where you have to stick it out. You cant just parachute in here and expect to win.

But those who dismiss Mr. Canyon as just a country singer who left for Alberta are underestimating his political abilities, Mr. MacKay argues.

I think hes got a compelling story. Hes got a lot more to offer beyond stage presence and a cowboy hat, he said. I think hes going to surprise people.

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Candace MacDonald, shown at her New Glasgow smoking supply store, is skeptical of Mr. Canyon's candidacy in Central Nova.

Darren Calabrese/The Globe and Mail

A farm near Brookfield, N.S., in the riding of Cumberland-Colchester. Mr. MacKay was asked to run again in the riding, but encouraged Mr. Canyon to give it a try instead.

Photos: Darren Calabrese/The Globe and Mail

The former cabinet minister has leaned on his network of conservatives inside and outside the riding to boost Mr. Canyons chances. At the opening of the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government last month at St. Francis Xavier University, Mr. MacKay spent the morning introducing the candidate to the crowd of invited guests, which included former Conservative staffers and politicians.

Jim Bickerton, a professor of political science at the university, said Mr. Brisons and Mr. MacKays strong personal followings are unusual in politics. While that influence can fade the longer someone is out of office, people in rural ridings tend to have long memories and remember how a former cabinet minister helped them or their community.

I think George Canyon will benefit from all those years of building up loyal, Conservative voters, Prof. Bickerton said. Peter has such a strong reputation here, hes very highly regarded so if hes involved, that could rally people."

But not everyone is convinced the support of prominent Tories can help Mr. Canyon turn the riding blue again.

In 2015, the Conservative establishment was also trying to help the local candidate and it didnt make a lick of difference, said Mr. Fraser, the Liberal MP who is seeking re-election.

People can see through the commentary that this has always been a Conservative riding. I think people here are more open-minded than theyre given credit for.

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Mr. Blois, the Kings-Hants Liberal candidate, and Mr. Trudeau meet guests at a caf in Elmsdale on Aug. 16.

Riley Smith/The Canadian Press

In Kings-Hants, Mr. Brison also lent his young protg his former campaign manager, Dale Palmeter, the architect of Mr. Brisons seven electoral victories in the riding since 1997. Together, they won election after election, despite Mr. Brison switching parties and coming out as gay in a traditionally conservative riding.

Scott treated every election he ran in as if it was his first, Mr. Palmeter said. In rural communities, people know you or they know your cousin or they know people who know you. They want to see you engage with them.

But Mr. Bloiss rivals, including Conservative candidate Martha MacQuarrie and the NDPs Stephen Schneider, see an opportunity with Mr. Brison finally out of the way. Ms. MacQuarrie says voters are angry at what she calls failing Liberal branding, while Mr. Schneider argues the electorate isnt thrilled about any of the party leaders. With Mr. Brison gone, each believes their party has its best chance in years to win here.

Editors note: An earlier version of this article included an incorrect last name for Jim Bickerton.

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In their old ridings, Atlantic Canada's Liberal and Conservative heavyweights lend a hand to newcomers - The Globe and Mail

Northern Ontario gun owners fear ‘intentionally vague’ Liberal plan will lead to wider gun ban – CBC.ca

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The Crean Hill Gun Club is one of the only places inGreater Sudbury where you can legally shoot a handgun or a restricted rifle.

Club president Steve Hogan says a proposed Liberal ban on "military-style" firearms will do nothing to stop gun violence in major Canadian cities, andonly hurt sport shooters like him and his some 200 members.

"We feel very much as though we're being punished for somebody else's sins," he says.

"Because they know where we live, they know what guns we have because we're forced to register everything and it's easy for them to take them;whereas taking guns from the criminals who are shooting one another and innocent people is hard work."

Hogan worries the lack of specifics in the Liberal proposal could see even hunting rifles made illegal one day.

"It's written intentionally vague so it can mean whatever you want it to mean," he says.

Nickel Belt Liberal candidate and incumbent MPMarc Serre says the plan is to consult the RCMP on which weapons should be banned and then the government wouldbuy them from gun owners.

He says for him the focus is on protecting hunters, not those who want to own a gun designed for military use.

"That's not a hunting rifle. These are machines that have been fabricated, manufactured to kill people," Serre says.

The Liberals are also promising to give police and border guards more money to fight the flow of illegal guns from the U.S.

Serresays he made sure before the party moved forward with this proposal that it wouldn't affect hunters in northern Ontario.

When his uncle Benoit Serre was the local MP in the 1990s, he broke party ranks andvoted against his own Liberal government plans for a long gun registry.

That same registry was a thorny issue for NDP MPsin the northeast in 2011, who initially voted with the Conservative government to scrap it, but most were eventually whipped into voting to keep it.

This time, the NDP are making a similar promise asthe Liberals to "keep assault weapons and illegal handguns off our streets and to tackle gun smuggling and organized crime." However, the partydoes notlay out how that would be done.

The Green Party says it too would buy back assault weapons from Canadians who currently own them legally, but it would also look to buy back handguns as well.

The Conservatives are making a similar pledge, also saying they'll toughen the penalties for those convicted of gun crimes.

Sudbury psychologist Lorraine Champagne would like to hear the parties talk more about mental health services when it comes to gun crime.

She was one of several dozen women who fired a gun for the first time at a charity shooting event for women at the Crean Hill Gun Club earlier this month.

Champagne says there really is no "mental health system" in Canada, with most counselling services not funded by the provincial government.

"Rather than just looking at the gun, we need to look at the mental health services people need."

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Northern Ontario gun owners fear 'intentionally vague' Liberal plan will lead to wider gun ban - CBC.ca

I dont get the intense hatred for the Liberals – Toronto Star

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This column is about the Liberal party. Im afraid it will contain more questions than answers. At the least, the questions will be better than the answers.

And so vehemently. This is based mainly on my mail. Nothing evokes sputtering rage indicating loss of control, leading probably to self-disgust like anything I write about Liberals that could be read positively. I can only compare it to the bilious American responses when I sometimes appeared on shows like Bill OReillys. (Ive never been a Liberal, btw, Id call myself an independent left socialist and doubt Ive ever written anything suggesting otherwise.)

Is it that Liberals seem to have no raison dtre and if they did it was long ago? Is it that they seemed born to fail, back in 1861, and for their first 40 years, aside from one spurt in office, did fail. Later, the NDP/CCF shouldve brushed them aside. Yet theyre still here exercising power!

That bottomless fury baffles me. Sometimes I wonder if its simply that Liberals dont seem to take anything too seriously, including their principles, to whatever extent they exist, and usually look like theyre having a good time anyway. By journalistic consensus they host the best parties, in the other sense of party. The Liberal party may make more sense than the Liberal Party.

Its spectacular how often theyve been prematurely interred. In 1958, John Diefenbakers Progressive Conservatives decimated them, yet they returned for the Pierre Trudeau and then Jean Chretien years. In 2011, a mere eight years ago, pundits and experts proclaimed a new right-wing era for Canada, with the Liberals obsolete. For decades, theyve had zero mainstream media support, aside from the Star.

What preserves them? Perhaps an instinct for the political zeitgeist. In the 1800s, that meant electoral reform, which they embraced in the form of extending the ballot and making it secret. They also adopted another 1800s loss leader, the nation-state, which in Canada meant reconciling French and English so the Liberal, Laurier, became our first francophone PM. That project wasnt completed till 1982, with constitutional patriation under Pierre Trudeau, but weve always been a bit slow. Trudeau saw himself as Laurier revisited.

The 1900s were largely about extending the welfare state via activist governments (the New Deal, the Russian Revolution). Liberal leader Mackenzie King, the Platonic model of a pol without principles, sensed that drift while working for John Rockefeller in Colorado, helping him strike-break. (He proved his worth by inventing the company union.) So he introduced family allowances and old age pensions; later Liberals added medicare. The NDP think Liberals stole those ideas from them but really they swiped them from the 20th century.

Multiculturalism began under Pierre Trudeau as a gimmick to undermine Quebec separatism. It acquired legs of its own with Justin Trudeau, becoming diversity is our strength. Threaded in with globalization and trade deals, it may represent the spirit of the 2000s. Even Justins contradictions and apologies catch the mood of the age: self-criticism, personalization, confessionalism. Maybe it helps to be unanchored in serious principles: it lets you sniff out the temper of the times and accommodate it. Is that vrai liberalism?

This time they really shouldve been done. The Wilson-Raybould affair ought to have sufficed. When it didnt quite, along came the blackface. If the Tories had cashed in, or still do, it will be richly ironic that Liberals reneged on their 2015 promise of electoral reform: to never again hold an election where a minority of votes leads to virtually total power.

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They couldve passed a mixed voting system (representatives plus PR) with multi-party (minus Conservative) support. Or their preference, a ranked ballot, if theyd had the guts to ram it through, as Stephen Harper surely would have.

Instead they chickened out, supposing theyd rule forever. But if they now win a minority, what deal can they make with other parties (minus the Tories) to retain power? Nothing on climate, theyre too far apart. But they could agree on electoral reform, which would be unspeakably ironic. Theyd keep power, and fulfil their promise too. These damn Liberals cant lose for winning.

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I dont get the intense hatred for the Liberals - Toronto Star

On immigration, Liberals and Conservatives agree on targets but not on how to get there – Toronto Star

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OTTAWAIn the months leading up to the federal election, many political observers in Ottawa thought immigration issues would figure prominently in the campaign.

The Conservative opposition had spent months between 2017 and 2019 hammering the Liberal government on their handling of a spike in asylum claimants crossing into Canada, mostly at a single point on Quebecs southern border.

The Liberals, for their part, continued to trumpet Canadas openness to immigrants and refugees something Justin Trudeau had highlighted since the 2015 campaign with his partys commitment to take in more refugees fleeing war-torn Syria.

But over the course of the campaign, including the two official leaders debates last week, immigration has taken a back seat to issues like climate change, or how the various leaders would save you a buck if they formed government.

That might be because, in spite of the rhetoric and the politicking, Canadas mainstream political parties have a broad consensus on immigration being key to the countrys continued economic and social well-being.

But there are important differences in both tone and policy between the Liberals and the Conservatives the two parties which have the most realistic shot of governing. How would the first six months of a Conservative or a Liberal government differ?

The Star looks ahead at what this election could mean for Canadas immigration policies and for people hoping to make it to Canadian shores.

Liberal majority

Naturally, a Liberal majority would represent the least change from Canadas current immigration levels. The Liberals have been steadily increasing planned immigration levels since taking office in 2015, and would continue to do so if they were re-elected.

According to the federal governments immigration levels plan, Canada would aim to grow the number of immigrants from 330,800 in 2019, to 350,000 in 2021. Most of these, around 60 per cent, come through Canadas economic stream for immigration skilled workers to fill needs in the economy.

The Liberal party says it will enact modest and responsible increases in immigration, with a focus on attracting highly skilled workers.

A Liberal government would introduce a municipal nominee program that would allow local communities to directly sponsor permanent immigrants and it would make permanent a separate program to encourage immigration to Atlantic Canada. A minimum of 5,000 spaces would be earmarked for each program. The Liberals say they would also waive citizenship fees for permanent residents.

The number of refugees admitted into Canada fluctuates year-to-year, although irregular migration at the Canada-U.S. border where asylum claimants have been crossing outside recognized ports of entry in hopes of securing refugee status decreased in 2019 compared to previous years.

Conservative majority

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer largely agrees with the Liberal governments proposed immigration targets of 350,000 newcomers in 2021. Scheer told the CBC this month that immigration levels should not be politicized.

This should be a number that Statistics Canada and experts in various fields say we need this many people to come to fill the gaps in the workplace, or to ensure we have a growing population, combined with a humanitarian component for family reunification and refugees, Scheer said.

So dont expect a new Conservative government to drastically change course on the top-level numbers. The Conservatives main point of difference with the Liberals is the situation at Roxham Road in Quebec.

Since 2017, more than 50,000 people have crossed the Canada-U.S. border outside of a border services checkpoint. Once they reach Canadian soil, Canada has an obligation under both domestic and international law to give their asylum claims a fair hearing.

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While the numbers have decreased year-over-year since 2017, when U.S. President Donald Trumps administration started threatening specific groups with deportation, the Conservatives have continued to heap criticism on the Liberals handling of the file.

Last week, Scheer announced that a Conservative government would attempt to renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement with the Trump administration. The bilateral agreement requires those seeking asylum to make their claim in either the U.S. or Canada, whichever they arrive in first. But convincing the hardline Trump administration to take in more refugees would be an uphill battle particularly as Trump seeks re-election.

Scheer said there are other options if the U.S. is unwilling to renegotiate the agreement although declined in his news conference to say what those options were. A Scheer government would also hire an additional 250 officers for the Canada Border Services Agency, a significant increase in the agencys inland enforcement workforce.

The Conservatives would also prioritize funding to immigration services like language training and credential recognition, in addition to emphasizing services to vulnerable newcomers.

Minority government

All the parties recognize the importance of immigration to Canadas economy at a time when the countrys workforce is aging and concerns mount about labour shortages. This could open the door to more economic immigration as well as increased efforts to recognize the credentials of professionals trained abroad. And three parties want changes to Canadas Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States although in very different ways.

The Green party wants it terminated, the NDP says suspend it and the Conservatives want changes, to prevent asylum seekers from the U.S. from making claims when they arrive at unofficial border crossings. The Liberals said only that it would work with the U.S. to modernize the agreement.

But a Liberal minority government could come under opposition pressure for more drastic changes.

The NDP say that Canada has an important role to play taking in refugees. New Democrats and Green party members want to speed family reunification. Both want to crack down on unscrupulous immigration consultants.

The Green party wants the accreditation of foreign professionals expedited to speed their entry into the workforce. It would eliminate the temporary foreign workers program by increasing immigration levels and working with employers to assist with permanent residency. And it says that Canada must be ready to take in environmental refugees, those who have been displaced by the impacts of climate change.

The Choice is a Toronto Star series where we take the issues that matter in this election and tell you what your vote will mean.

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On immigration, Liberals and Conservatives agree on targets but not on how to get there - Toronto Star

Second Interstellar Visitor is Surprisingly Similar to Comets in Solar System: Study – The Weather Channel

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Gemini Observatory two-color composite image of 2I/Borisov

Two years ago, on October 19, 2017, a mysterious, elongated, dark-red object was detected in our solar system cruising at around 315,364 km per hour. After several months of research, scientists suggested that it may even be an alien probe investigating our solar system. It was named Oumuamua, which roughly translates to "visitor from afar, arriving first" in Hawaiian. It was only July 2019 that scientists confirmed that Oumuamua has a purely natural origin.

On August 30, 2019, amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov spotted another mysterious object, brighter than Oumuamua. After thorough analysis, the International Astronomical Union confirmed on September 24 that the object has a highly open orbit (with no specified return to a specific angular position). The union named the object 2I/Borisov, confirming that it is the only second interstellar (travelling from or originating in other star-systems) object identified in our solar system.

Now, European astronomers have described the characteristics of the newly identified interstellar comet, 2I/Borisov in a paper published in Nature Astronomy. The findings suggest that, despite its faraway origin, the new comet has strikingly similar colour and structure to that of any active comet in our solar system. Oumuamua, on the other hand, had unusually elongated shape along with the absence of cometary activity.

"Images taken on 10 and 13 September 2019 UT with the William Herschel Telescope and Gemini North Telescope show an extended coma and a faint, broad tail," write the authors, who add that the nucleus is probably around one kilometre in radius, which is common with Solar System comets.

"Based on these early characteristics, and putting its hyperbolic orbit aside, 2I/Borisov appears indistinguishable from the native Solar System comets," the study says.

A comet is usually a cold, icy celestial body which starts to release gasses upon approaching any star. The defining characteristic for any comet is the long outgassing tail. While the tail can be observed very clearly in case of 2I/Borisov, Oumuamua showed no obvious signs of outgassing. Scientists believe that more such interstellar objects might have entered our solar system in the past, but we haven't been able to spot them either due to small size or lack of technology.

The study says that since 2I/Borisov was discovered while it was approaching the Sun, astronomers will be able to acquire more data before it passes in approximately a year from now. The scientists say that the closest encounter is expected on December 8, 2019.

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Second Interstellar Visitor is Surprisingly Similar to Comets in Solar System: Study - The Weather Channel

Newly discovered comet is confirmed as an interstellar visitor with a surprisingly familiar look – USA TODAY

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2I/Borisov is only the second interstellar comet ever detected in our solar system and the first that looks like a traditional comet. USA TODAY

A newly discovered comet is definitely from outside our solar system, scientists confirmed in a studypublished Monday.

The study said that despite the comet's interstellar origin, it lookssurprisingly similar to comets from within thesolar system.

It's only the second interstellar comet ever detected in our solar systemand the first that looks like a traditional comet, thestudy says. The first one, cigar-shaped 'Oumuamua, which was discovered in 2017, did not resemble a comet in the usual sense:

"We immediately noticed the familiar coma and tail that were not seen around 'Oumuamua," said study co-author Michal Drahus ofJagiellonian University in Poland. "This is really cool because it means that our new visitor is one of these mythical and never-before-seen 'real' interstellar comets."

Colin Snodgrass, an astronomer at Edinburgh University, who was not part of the study,told The Guardian that "this appears to be a completely unremarkable comet on a very remarkable orbit.

The interstellar comet 2I/Borisov was captured by the Gemini North telescope on Sept. 10, 2019.(Photo: Gemini Observatory/NSF/AURA)

The comet, dubbed 2I/Borisov, was discovered Aug. 30 by Gennady Borisov at an observatory in Nauchnij, Crimea.

A computer program specifically designed to spot interstellar objects confirmed the discovery in September."This code was written specifically for this purpose, and we really hoped to receive this message one day. We only didn't know when," said Piotr Guzik ofJagiellonian University, who led the study.

2I/Borisov is inbound toward the sun, but it will remain farther than the orbit of Mars and will approach no closer to Earth than about 190 million miles in early December, NASA said.

It won't be visible with the naked eye, but it can be viewed through professional telescopes. "The object will peak in brightness in mid-December and continue to be observable with moderate-size telescopes until April 2020," NASA's Davide Farnocchia saidin astatement in September.

Monday's study was published in the peer-reviewed British journal Nature Astronomy.Scientists saidthis is only a prologue to more thorough investigations and discoveries. "The comet is still emerging from the sun's morning glare and growing in brightness,"said Waclaw Waniak ofJagiellonian University, co-author of the study.

"It will be observable for several months, which makes us believe that the best is yet to come," Waniaksaid.

Guzik said,"We can safely say that research on this body will be transformative for planetary astronomy and a milestone for astronomy in general."

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Newly discovered comet is confirmed as an interstellar visitor with a surprisingly familiar look - USA TODAY

WBS Weekly: Penguins only earn one point in losses to Phantoms, Comets, and Bears – PensBurgh

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Friday, October 11: WBS 1 @ Lehigh Valley 4

Going into the first really busy weekend of the new WBS season, it could reasonably be expected that the Penguins would regress a bit, as between their season-opening victory in Hershey and their first visit to Allentown, they lost Sam Lafferty, Andrew Agozzino, Adam Johnson, and Joseph Blandisi to Pittsburgh callups. While it is true that Pittsburgh essentially exchanged Agozzino for Blandisi on Friday, Agozzino did not get back to Allentown in enough time to take part, so thats four top players removed from the WBS forward lines.

WBS needed to be at its absolute best to compete with the Phantoms, who defeated them 4-1 and 3-1 in two separate preseason games. They were not, primarily due to the callups, and it showed, as the Phantoms made a strong resurgence following their season-opening shutout on home ice at the hands of Providence, as four different Phantoms scored to give Lehigh Valley a decisive 4-1 victory over their PA Turnpike rivals.

Kurtis Gabriel opened the scoring at 15:35 of the first after WBS defender Jon Lizotte was dispossessed at his own blue line during a breakout.

Mikhail Vorobyev followed that at 19:24 of the first by burying an excellent cross-zone pass from former WBS Penguin Cal OReilly.

Shots favored the Phantoms 16-2 after the first 20 minutes.

WBS showed some life coming out of the locker rooms, as Stefan Noesen scored his third of the young season on a power play just 38 seconds into the second period.

The Phantoms restored the two-goal lead just 4:01 later in spectacular fashion, as highly touted rookie Joel Farabee, making his professional debut, scored the highlight reel goal of the young season for the Phantoms.

Take a bow, Joel. This writer tips the cap to you. Its gonna be hard to top that highlight.

The goal seemed to stun WBS, as the Phantoms quickly expanded the lead to 4-1 through Chris Bigras, and thats how the game would end.

Final shots on goal were 29-19 to the Phantoms, with WBS goalie Casey DeSmith finishing with 25 saves, and Lehigh Valleys Alex Lyon stopping 18 WBS efforts.

Phantoms forward German Rubtsov took third star honors with two assists, the second assist on Vorobyevs goal and the second assist on Bigrass goal. Gabriel took second honors with his goal, and Farabee finished the star sweep for Lehigh Valley with his highlight reel goal.

Saturday, October 12: Utica 4 @ WBS 3 (OT)

The Penguins returned home for their 21st season home opener on Saturday, hosting the Utica Comets. Just prior to the game, the Penguins announced the release of defender Steve Oleksy from his tryout agreement; whatever the reasoning behind it, Im sure all of the WBS fandom wishes Steve well in whatever comes next.

WBS came out of the gates flying in the first period, controlling the first 15 or so minutes of play, but unfortunately old rival Zane McIntyre was waiting in net, stopping all 10 shots WBS managed in the opening session. Utica eventually built their own momentum late in the first, as Uticas goal-scoring leader last season (31), winger Reid Boucher, tallied twice in the last 2:20 of the first (the second goal was on a PP) to give the Comets a 2-0 lead. The goals were Bouchers third and fourth of the season in only his second game.

To their credit, WBS rebounded nicely in the second period, tying the score in the first half of the second period through the red-hot Stefan Noesen and the newly-crowned captain David Warsofsky.

Noesen now has four goals in 3 games for WBS; this is where I remind you that he signed with WBS on the first day of the AHL season, just one day before WBS opened their schedule.

* shakes head in amazement *

I can also confirm that, while Pittsburgh has changed its goal song away from the Andrew WK hit, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins still choose to Party Hard after goals.

The second period ended 2-2.

In the third, things started getting testy between the two teams, as it has tended to become lately with these two teams, with big winger Anthony Angello in the middle of it. At 6:48 of the third period, Angello took a roughing penalty; WBS killed it off well, and at the very end, in a scene eerily reminiscent of opening night in Hershey, Jon Lizotte, cleared a puck out of the defensive zone to center ice, where Angello was waiting to collect the puck, break in alone, and do this.

Angello later threw a questionable hit on the side boards, inspiring Uticas Vincent Arsenau to try to fight him and taking a penalty in result.

Turning a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead is to be commended, to be sure, but the sign of a really good team is to get a lead like that and close the door. WBS did not do that on Saturday, conceding the tying goal 2:19 from full time to Carter Bancks.

The game went to overtime, where by any decent metric, WBS dominated, putting six shots on goal compared to Uticas one. The only problem was, again, Zane McIntyre, who stopped all six WBS efforts, and Utica buried their only shot in OT as Lukas Jasek deflected home a floating shot to give the Comets the bonus point.

McIntyre finished with 37 saves on 40 WBS shots for the win, WBS goaltender Emil Larmi finished with 27 saves on 31 shots in his pro debut.

Reid Boucher took third star honors with his two goals; David Warsofsky took second honors with his game-tying goal in the second period and one assist; Jasek took top honors with the game-winner.

Sunday, October 13: WBS 1 @ Hershey 5

No matter whos the coach, no matter whos on the roster, the fact remains that one of the hardest scheduling assignment in the league is the third game of a 3 in 3 weekend, on the road, against a team that is not playing a 3 in 3. WBS faced such a situation to close their second weekend of the season, visiting the Hershey Bears, and the Bears responded in kind with a 5-1 drubbing.

Having just been returned to Hershey after clearing waivers last Monday, Travis Boyd put up another 3 points in his second game for Hershey after also putting up 3 points in his season debut the night before. Against WBS, he opened the scoring on a power play at 15:27 of the first, then assisted on a Matt Moulson PP goal at 17:39 of the first, then scored again at 6:56 of the second for his fourth goal of the season in two games. Hershey also enjoyed a shorthanded goal by Martin Fehervary at 11:02 of the second and Mike Sgarbossas 3rd of the season at 14:31 of the third.

Hershey almost finished the shutout for starting goalie Pheonix Copley, but WBS defender Niclas Almari spoiled the shutout bid with just 1:25 left on the clock to make the final 5-1.

Moulson (goal and assist), Fehervary (shorthanded goal), and Boyd (two goals, one assist) swept the stars.

After only getting one point out of the weekend, WBSs record of 1-2-1 after 4 games is good for only 3 points, tied for worst in the Atlantic with Lehigh Valley (1-1-1) and Bridgeport (1-2-1). Those 3 clubs are four points behind division leader Hartford, who has a record of 3-0-1 after the second weekend.

After the second weekend, only five players for WBS have scored goals. Stefan Noesen has 4 of the teams 9 goals, while Anthony Angello has two and David Warsofsky, Niclas Almari, and Jake Lucchini have one each.

The schedule gets slightly easier this upcoming week for WBS, as they host Binghamton on Wednesday, October 16, at 7:05 pm EDT, then travel to Bridgeport on Saturday, October 19, for a 7:00 pm start.

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WBS Weekly: Penguins only earn one point in losses to Phantoms, Comets, and Bears - PensBurgh

Image of rare blue comet captured by the European Southern Observatory – Digital Trends

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This image shows the Oort cloud comet C/2016 R2 (PANSTARRS). ESO / SPECULOOS Team / E. Jehin.

Last year, astronomers in Paris noticed a beautiful and distinctive comet, technically called C/2016 R2 but more colloquially known as the blue comet for its unusual hue. Now, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released this new image showing the comet up close.

C/2016 R2 is believed to originate from the Oort Cloud, a distant region of our solar system with objects orbiting the sun that are far beyond even the Kuiper Belt. The cloud consists of billions or even trillions of objects which form a sphere all around our sun, unlike the planets and the Kuiper Belt which form more of a flat disk shape around the sun. This means that the comet has a highly eccentric orbit, being titled at an angle of 58 degrees.

But the far more unusual feature of the comet is its color. Comets and their tails are typically yellow or neutral in shade, due to the way radiation from the sun is scattered by dust. This comet, however, has rare compounds in its coma, or the halo around its core. These compounds include carbon monoxide and nitrogen ions, which give the comet its blue color.

The comas and tails are formed when the comet comes close to the sun. Comets are balls of dust, ice, gas, and rock, the ESO scientists explained in a statement. When they pass close to the sun, their ice warms up, turns to gas, and escapes in a process called outgassing. This process forms fuzzy envelopes around the comets nucleus, called comas, and distinctive tails.

Its rare for a comet such as this to be observed, however. The blue comet circles the sun once every 20,000 years and we dont often see others like it. Comet C/2016 R2 is representative of a family of comets that we observe only rarely each century, the scientists said.

There are two theories for the origin of the comet: Either it is from a rare group of comets from beyond the line at which nitrogen can condense into solid grains. Or it could be a fragment that was knocked off a larger object orbiting beyond Neptune.

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Image of rare blue comet captured by the European Southern Observatory - Digital Trends

Sports Kansas City Comets sign 3-year deal to stay in Independence 41 Action News Staff – KSHB

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. Two Kansas City-area sports teams on opposite sides of the metro made announcements about their future Tuesday.

The Kansas City Comets, of the Major Arena Soccer League, announced a three-year agreement to play at Silverstein Eye Center Arena in Independence, Missouri.

Since a revival in 2010, the Comets have played their home games in Independence. Theyll kick off the 10th season in Independence on Nov. 30 against the St. Louis Ambush.

We are thrilled to announce Silverstein Eye Centers Arena through 2022, Comets managing partner Brian Budzinski said in a release. We couldnt be more excited for our fans to see all the upgrades.

Earlier Tuesday , a new ownership group announced plans to buy the Kansas City T-Bones, keeping the team at Village West Stadium in Kansas City, Kansas. The deal still requires final approval.

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Sports Kansas City Comets sign 3-year deal to stay in Independence 41 Action News Staff - KSHB

The wind of change in the estate agency industry… – Estate Agent Today

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There has been a real wind of change in estate agency and over the last 18 months we have seen the emergence and establishment of a different way of working: the self-employed agent.

This ties in with the general revolution on our high street but also with changes in our socio-economic environment.

I call it: localism joins the gig economy. It is clear that across all kinds of industries and sectors more and more people are choosing to step out of the 9 to 5 grind and create a better lifestyle for themselves.

Work is important to pay the bills but so is the quality of life! There is no point slaving all hours to then not be able to enjoy one's success for lack of time. Or worse, to miss out on your children growing up or helping your ageing parents because work takes up all your time - and of course when not working you are recovering from the strain...

There has also been a big shift in the consumer's attitudes. For various reasons they prefer to work with someone they know and trust rather than a big corporation.

We have seen this in coffee shop culture. If one has the choice between Starbucks or a small independent, you go to the small independent.

Years of tax avoidance (offshoring?) and generic surroundings without a personal feel have just made high streets the same everywhere with nothing which is really local.

Online shopping has also transformed the way we consume. In my opinion, the high street will probably move away from being a place to mass shop to being more a place to network and enjoy yourself - work out, eat out, and find those objects and particular services you cannot get online. Quality, originality and great service are the future.

This philosophy applies across all sectors. For example, you can look at the drinks industry. Ten years ago, the only gin one could get was London gin or Bombay Sapphire. Now there is real choice offered by small independent distillers in line with what I am saying above. For people love the idea of a small craftsmen making something special and limited in volume and above all with a story behind it.

Anyway, this brings me back to our industry - estate agency. Yes, we have all watched the collapse of high street model, and over the last ten years we have also seen the discount onliners grabbing a share of the market, but it has not really worked.

For although the latter were able to create brand visibility via mass marketing and branding roll-out, they could not offer quality of service because of the low prices they charge.

We can see from the share prices of the likes of Purplebricks and Countrywide that both models - the traditional and the recent challenger - are failing.

So, a third model, one based on very personal bespoke service, is really starting to get a foothold.

Buyers and sellers, landlords and tenants can now choose to rely on an individual who works for himself/herself under a banner such as Agent & Homes, Keller Williams, the London Broker, Harding and Green and many others who are all trying to occupy this new space in their own way.

The difference with the individual self-employed agent is of course localism and true independence, which gives these new agents the ability to work when they want, how they want, where they want.

They set their fees and work across disciplines, and they aren't tied to a desk in a corporate structure. They are able to understand the situation better, to really look after their clients and give proper advice - the service craved above all by the new consumer. And because this model offers high rewards, they can also earn a good living while having a great life.

Probably the three models will co-exist for a while, and time will tell which of them comes to dominate, but the key will surely be who can offer the best service for a fair commission...

*Rollo Miles is co-founder of Agent& Homes

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The wind of change in the estate agency industry... - Estate Agent Today

Uighurs: The Victims Of Hanification – OpEd – Eurasia Review

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Chairman Mao tried to sell the Marxist-Leninist thought to solve the ethnic problem in his multi-ethnic country (PRC). Not only did the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) fail but Maos social engineering proved to be highly destructive. It led to the widespread discrimination and segregation of the non-Han minorities prevalent today based on their distinct religion, habitus, physiognomy, language, culture and socioeconomic status. After the death of Chairman Mao in 1976, the CCP began to relax its policies towards Muslims in 1978. But its policy of Hanification of the non-Han communities via the all-too-familiar colonial-style settlements and acculturation or a forced assimilation to the dominant Han culture did not ebb an iota.

The most vivid example of this experiment is Xinjiang (formerly East Turkestan) where the Han Communists developed it as a penal colony, as a nuclear testing ground and dumping ground for radioactive wastes (that is responsible for unusually high birth defects and mortality rate amongst the inhabitants) and as a buffer zone against invasion, and as a supplier of raw materials and living space for an overpopulated country. [Note: In this respect, Hanification has some resemblance to the Soviet experiment in the Muslim-majority Central Asia.]

Determined to end the push and pull of centuries, Maos successors resorted to Hanification of Xinjiang, which is primarily carried out in two folds: settlements and language or culture. They have had changed the demography of the region by settling the Han Chinese from other parts of the PRC and conducted forced abortion on Uighur women. Arienne M. Dwyer notes in an article The Xinjiang Conflict: Uyghur Identity, Language Policy, and Political Discourse the Han population increased from nearly 300,000 in 1953 to nearly 6 million in 1990, in addition to more than one-half million demobilized soldiers in the Production and Construction Corps. This increase in Xinjiang was made possible as a result of state-sponsored population transfers from other parts of China.

A second massive Hanification in the form of systematic colonization took place in the 1990s soon after the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Mindful of the emergence of the Central Asian republics (that are culturally, mostly Turkish), the CCP offered an attractive economic incentive program called the Big Development of the Northwest to the poor Han-Chinese to transfer them from the underdeveloped areas of the country to the Muslim-majority territories. The CCPs calculated attempts brought success. It brought between one and two million new Han-Chinese settlers to Xinjiang alone. Today, the HanChinese population makes up more than 40 percent of Xinjiangs total population of 22 million, from what was only 6 percent in the early 1950s.

As part of its acculturation strategy, the Han supremacists curtailed the Xinjiangs millennium-plus-years old rich Muslim culture and are practicing widespread religious repression against the ethnic Uighurs (also spelled Uyghur). They have closed down Quranic and Uighur language schools to cut down their Islamic and cultural ties with other Muslims. Because of the Mandarin-based educational policy of the state, the Uighurs cant pass and find jobs in their own land. The party-state has institutionalized discrimination based on Uighurs distinct religion, habitus, physiognomy, language culture and socioeconomic status. In so doing, they have only widened the gap between the settlers and the indigenous inhabitants.

Since the 1950s, successive Chinese political leaderships have systematically formulated policies and carefully implemented action plans to ensure the total de-empowerment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang: politically, socially and economically. [Interested readers may like to read the article: Chinas Hanification of Xinjiang is Failing By Habib Siddiqui and A.R.M. Imtiyaz]

In January 2019, Beijing passed a new Draconian law that seeks to Sinicize Islam. The campaign to Sinicize religion the third form of Hanification actually began in 2015 when President Xi Jinping passed a policy to bring religions in line with Chinese culture and the CCP. The law criminalized any expression of dissent or religious belief on behalf of Uyghurs alongside with branding their cultural traditions as signs of radicalization and terrorism. In October 2016, the government declared that all Xinjiang residents need to submit their documents for review to the Public Security Bureau (PSB), with the intention of limiting their travel outside the country. As a result of that, many students who pursued education abroad were forcefully returned and disappeared upon arrival at the Chinese border since their loyalty to the Peoples Party was questioned.

In addition to that, throughout the province, smartphone owners found their phones inspected for suspicious content or undesirable social media applications, as a result of which many of them reportedly got installed bug- and tracking devices or spyware. Surveillance cameras were also updated with face recognition software, which facilitated the identification of individuals at crowded places. In South-eastern Xinjiang, authorities have ordered all vehicles to have compulsory GPS trackers installed, for what they call a comprehensive supervision. These and various other stringent security measures established the legislative foundation for the States repressive policies in the following years.

While Islam is one of the five officially recognized religions in China, the Han Chinese leadership began to show its unease toward Islam as well as Christianity soon after 9/11. The latest phase of taking down Arabic script and Islamic symbols, including those from halal restaurants and food stalls, represents an escalation in the Sinicization of Islam, especially in major cities like Beijing with high Hui Muslim population.

The new law, symbolizing Han anti-Muslim supremacist assaults, has led to painful experience for tens of millions of Chinese Muslims, especially the Uighur and Hui Muslims. Hundreds of Muslim intellectuals have either been executed or simply disappeared in the Chinese Gulag. One of those academics is Tashpolat Tiyip, a Uighur Muslim. Until 2017 he was a model academic, head of Xinjiang University, globally connected, and with an honorary degree from a prestigious Paris university. But that year, without warning, he disappeared, with no word from officials. His friends believe that after a secret trial, Prof Tiyip was convicted of separatism and sentenced to death.

As I noted in an earlier article, Professor Tiyip is not the only academic to disappear in the Chinese Gulag. Among the first high profile arrests was economist Ilham Tohti, another Uighur Muslim, who was convicted of separatism and sentenced to life in prison in 2014. Last month (Sept. 2019), he was awarded the Council of Europes Vaclaw Havel Prize for human rights. Another example is anthropologist Rahile Dawut, also of Xinjiang University. She disappeared in late 2017 and has not been heard of since.

According to Michael Caster, a researcher and author of The Peoples Republic of the Disappeared, There are hundreds of Uighur academics and professionals swept up into this mass internment campaign. This is targeting community, cultural, and intellectual leaders; it is tantamount to cultural genocide.

One of the latest strategies towards cementing Han supremacy is the building of detention camps, which are being branded as re-education centres, and undeniably further deteriorate the situation by disenfranchising the local population. The epithet, re-education camps has been given to internment camps, which have been operating secretly and unlawfully since 2016.

In 2018 a United Nations committee estimated that about 1 million Muslims mostly ethnic Uighurs but also other Muslim minorities were being held incommunicado in Xinjiang without being charged or tried, under the pretext of countering terrorism and religious extremism. Experts say the Turkic minorities are being subjected to intense political indoctrination, forced confessions and intimidation. Dr. Adrian Zenz, an academic, whose research focus is on Chinas ethnic policy and public recruitment in Tibetan regions and Xinjiang, argues that these mass camps are indiscriminately subjecting Uyghur Muslims to extrajudicial inhumane, humiliating and brainwashing conditions, supposedly as an attempt of lecturing the detainees how to distinguish the so-called legitimate from illegitimate religious practices, traditions and behavior.

Dr. Sean R. Roberts, Director of the International Development Studies Program at George Washington Universitys Elliott School of International Affairs and expert on Central Asia and China, has characterized Beijings perception of the Uyghurs as a biological threat to society, akin to a virus that must be eradicated, quarantined, or cleansed from those it infects. He explains how such attitude generates an environment similar to Michael Foucaults all-seeing Panopticon or George Orwells Surveillance Society, where every single move or word of the individual is being monitored, rendering a milieu where surveillance remains the norm, even if the person discontinues his/her actions.

In a recently published article Ethnic Cleansing of Uyghur Identity by China the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS) notes, Chinas campaign of coercive social re-engineering, justified under the slogan of war on terror, clearly comes closer to war on humankind. Such violent repression inevitably appears counter-productive, since it evokes even more violent resistance on behalf of the Uyghurs, which eventually leads to more repressive security measures on behalf of Beijing. Therefore, such perpetual cycle of repression-violence-repression only contributes to the complete disintegration of relations between the Chinese and the Uyghurs, rendering their peaceful habitation practically impossible.

The latest reports suggest that some 3 million Uighurs are being detained in Chinas concentration camps, making them the largest group since Nazi Germany. They are facing what can surely be termed as cultural genocide. Muslims cannot fast during Ramadan and are forced to eat pork, which is considered haram in Islam. In recent months, scores of mosques have also been razed to the ground at the behest of the PRC government. Among the sites completely destroyed was the Imam Asim shrine, which used to attract thousands of Uighur pilgrims each year. Its mosque and other buildings have been torn down and only the tomb remained, the Guardian reported.

Muslims caught praying, fasting, growing a beard or wearing a hijab, a headscarf worn by many Muslim women who feel it is part of their religion, face the threat of arrest. According to the Human Rights Watch, Beijing keeps a database of DNA samples, fingerprints, iris scans and blood types of all residents between the age of 12 and 16 in Xinjiang. Many Uighurs are now feared to have vanished either killed or held in detention camps by the Chinese authorities.

Succinctly put, President Xi Jinpings communist regime has proven to be anti-Muslim, supremacist and brutally serious about Hanification of the entire country. Under his authoritarian rule, PRC has become a state of, for and by the Han Chinese via the all-too-obvious supremacist Hanification process.

Thus, the disappearance and detention of more than a million Uighurs in Xinjiang who are victims of one of the worst forms of persecution and face a socio-economic-cultural genocide today in their ancestral land with their rights robbed and mutilated are all part of a statist project to cementing Han racial supremacy, and colonizing, minoritizing and securitizing them by every possible means. The sad reality is with the Chinese veto power in the UN and its enormous economic muscle (second only to the USA), the likelihood of securing the level of international cooperation needed to either punish the Han supremacists or change their criminally repugnant policy remains very low.

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Uighurs: The Victims Of Hanification - OpEd - Eurasia Review

The Unholy Mess of US Middle Eastern Strategy – Valdai Discussion Club

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Despite the clear warnings in Iraq and Afghanistan of the dangers of destroying an existing state, the USA overthrew the Ghaddafi regime in Libya, leading to the collapse of the state, civil war, and a flow of migrants across the Mediterranean that has driven right wing extremism in Europe. In the process, the Obama administration also engaged in blatant deceit of Moscow and Beijing, destroying whatever remained of US diplomatic credibility in those capitals. And the USA has not even been able to prevent one set of allies in the region from boycotting another ally Qatar which is home to a vital US air base!

The current preferred explanation for the latest disasters on the part of the US establishment is the personal behaviour of President Trump and indeed, in all the history of American diplomacy there may be nothing to equal Trumps latest statements on Turkey and the Kurds for illiteracy, irresponsibility and absolute stupidity. In the wider world, some of Trumps instincts appear to be good. Despite all his bluster, he shrinks from actual war, and he opened direct talks with the North Koreans and the Taliban that ought to have been initiated by Washington many years ago. Yet as these examples demonstrate, he appears incapable of the most minimal consistency or steadiness in his approaches, or indeed of grasping the basic dynamics of any given international relationship.

However, the concentration on blaming Trump is also a way for the US and Transatlantic establishments to excuse themselves for the series of disastrous and sometimes criminal decisions (and lack of decisions) by the previous three Democratic and Republican administrations. This pattern has its roots in the decay of the US political system and political establishment at home, including the power of lobbies and their money over US policy in key areas; the retreat of area studies in academia and think tanks, leading to sheer ignorance of some of the key countries with which the USA has to deal; the self-obsession, self-satisfaction and ideological megalomania that in every dispute leads so much of the US establishment and media to cast the USA as a force of absolute good, and its opponents as absolutely evil; and the failure linked to these three syndromes to identify vital an secondary interests and choose between them a failure that has led the USA to the cvrazy position of confronting China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Turkey and ISIS all at the same time while alienating the countries of the European Union.

However, it must also be acknowledged that the structures of the Middle East itself have also been responsible for many disasters; and that the appalling bitterness, complexity and interconnectedness of the regions problems would have challenged even the wisest and most far-sighted of would-be hegemons. It is not only that almost every state in the region is threatened from within by some combination of failure of socio-economic development, lack of political legitimacy, sectarian strife and rebellious minorities. The way in which these divides cut across the region means that almost every state has the capacity to pose an existential threat to other states, or at least is perceived to have this ability. The resulting set of fears and hatreds could be described as paranoid, except that in many cases they are in fact well-based.

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The Unholy Mess of US Middle Eastern Strategy - Valdai Discussion Club

Kevin Taylor, youre a reporter, not an opinionist; youre guided by the rule of impartiality! – Modern Ghana

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I have observed, read, heard, and watched a multitude of ebullient social media commentators apparently immersed in a gamut of emotions over the squeamishly ugly and somewhat preposterous statements by a certain importunate social media critic of the Akufo-Addos administration, who goes by the name, Kevin Taylor.

The said clamorous social media critics numerous wild and unsubstantiated claims of malfeasance and wilful neglect of responsibilities by the officials of the incumbent NPP government, so to speak, smack of sensationalism more than anything else.

In fact, at worst, it is intellectually incoherent and ridiculously incongruous for a supposedly trained-mind to brush aside the existing data on Ghanas economy and keep asserting somewhat spuriously that the Akufo-Addos government is worsening the plight of Ghanaians.

If the ubiquitous social media commentator, Kevin Taylor, cares to know, Ghanas economy is in a favourable position today than yesteryears.

In fact, the unconventional and unpalatable pronouncements by the vociferous and patently aggrieved serial social media critic of the Akufo-Addos administration, Kevin Taylor, who has gained an illimitable notoriety as a Lucifer in the flesh of the NPP government appointees, cannot be allowed to pass without commenting.

Whatever the case, I cannot for the life of me, comprehend how and why anyone calling him/her self a reflective thinker can proclaim somewhat plangently that Ghanas economy under former President Mahama (3.4% growth and 15.4% inflation) was better than under President Akufo-Addo (8.6% growth and 7.8% inflation).

It therefore came as no surprise to some of us at all when the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), concluded in its country report released on 13 May 2019 that Ex-President John Dramani Mahama will find it extremely difficult to convince discerning Ghanaians into accepting that he is the credible manager of Ghanas economy given the countrys fairly strong economic growth under President Akufo-Addo.

In a related development, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recent review of Ghanas economy reinforced the Economist Intelligence Unit earlier report of Ghanas propitious economic growth under the Akufo-Addos administration.

Well, Kevin Taylor, believe it or not, Ghanas economy had received thumbs-up from the likes of seasoned journalist, Malik Kweku Baako, the Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ms Christine Lagarde, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, who had earlier commended the Akufo-Addos government on its excellent economic performance in the two and half years in office.

In 2017, the Bloomberg News, for example, predicted Ghana to become Africas fastest-growing economy in 2018 and Ghana was proclaimed Star of Africa in 2018 Lenders Economic Forecasts.

And, in reporting on the same fiscal policy achievements, Le Monde pointed out that Ghanas economic success is not just as the result of an oil-driven boom, but is also due to prudent economic management, an entrepreneurial population, the role of traditional leaders, and good governance.

Kevin Taylor, the latest on the list of observers on Ghanas auspicious economy is the Nigerian scholar, who recently gave a presentation at the NDCs most recent forum, in which he emphasised Ghanas thriving economic growth under the NPP government.

Kevin Taylor, the Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ms Christine Lagardes has observed that the Ghanaian economy is in a better place than it was in the previous years under the John Dramani Mahamas administration.

Ms Lagarde opined that the Akufo-Addos government had made important gains towards macroeconomic stability, including inflation, which had declined to a single digit and now within the Bank of Ghanas (BoGs) tolerance band; buoyant growth, averaging about five per cent between 2015 and 2018, and, over six per cent in 2017-18) and a primary surplus in 2017 for the first time in 15 years (IMF 2018).

Besides, Kevin Taylor, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, observes: Ghana met the targets for halving extreme poverty and halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, and it achieved the goals relating to universal primary education and gender parity in primary school.

Kevin Taylor, the seasoned journalist, Kweku Baako Jnr hit the nail on the head when he pointed out on Joy FMs political show (News File) on Saturday 6/04/2019 that the NPP administration led by President Akufo-Addo has performed exceedingly better than the erstwhile NDC government led by former President Mahama.

Juxtaposing the state of the economy in first two years of the two administrations, Kweku Baako Jnr aptly concluded that the economy is in a better shape under the Akufo-Addos administration than it was under Mahamas administration.

Baako Jnr, therefore, asserted poignantly: Theres no doubt that the Akufo-Addo administration has done far better than the Mahama administration; its as simple as that, the figures and the records support it (myjoyonline.com, 6/04/2019).

This article thus intends to remind you, Kevin Taylor, and the opposition NDC communicators (both home and abroad) of the revoltingly ugly governance provided by the erstwhile Mahama administration.

Kevin Taylor, some of us, as a matter of principle, cannot end our arousing disgust anyhow and anytime soon over the erstwhile NDC governments irreversible incompetence and the corrupt practices which destabilised Ghanas macroeconomic indicators.

Whilst we do not want to buy the widely held assertion that politics is a dirty game, one would not be far from right to suggest that the political terrain is full of inveterate propagandists and manipulating geezers.

Of course, roguish politicians are not limited to Africa, it is a global phenomenon, as a matter of fact.

However, in our humble opinion, it is our part of the world (Africa), where political insobrieties and vague rhetoric are so prevalent.

Perhaps, this is so because we have greater number of unlettered folks, many of whom cannot choose between tricksters and morally upstanding politicians.

Of course, the opposition is obliged to put the incumbent government on its toes. But does the opposition NDC have to grumble and criticise for criticising sake?

In fact, one cannot help but to giggle over the minority NDCs renewed zeal to expose and prevent perceived incompetence and corruption in the NPP administration.

Bizarrely, the minority NDC faithful are gleefully hopping around the globe (from United States to Luxembourg), with a view to detecting a perceived corruption by the embryonic NPP government. How strange?

Kevin Taylor, let us be honest, if the NDC operatives were that good at detecting and preventing sleazes and corruption, how on earth did they go to sleep over the scandalous corruption cases involving the infamous Bus Branding, Brazil World Cup, the Ford Expedition vehicle, GYEEDA, AZONTABA, SADA, SUBAH, the purported $300million debt incurred on the faded STS housing deal, the dubious Embraer 190 Aircrafts and hanger for the Ghana Armed Forces and over a US$100 million oil revenue loss between 2011 and 2013 as reported by the Public Interest& Accountability Committee?

Perhaps, the NDC apologists are trying their level best to convince their aggrieved supporters of their consuming desire to recapture power in 2020.

In fact, Kweku Baako Jnr was absolutely right when he once stressed that the minority NDC operatives were seeking to internationalise their incompetence.

Kevin Taylor, isnt it therefore ironic that the opposition NDC operatives have soon found their voices and squalling and scolding at the roof top about alleged sleazes and corruption?

To some of us, Kevin Taylor, it is an illustrative case of let us give a dog a bad name and hang it. Obviously you and your ilk are trying your level best to bring to the fore the non-existent sleazes and corruption in the Akufo-Addos administration. How pathetic?

It beggars belief that despite the unbridled corruption, the arrogance of power and the irrevocable incompetence by the erstwhile NDC administration which resulted in massive economic collapse, the NDC apologists, both home and abroad, would still have the moral authority to accuse others.

Whatever the case, that is the beauty of democracy. The likes of Kevin Taylor are within their democratic right to whine and speak their piece and criticise the NPP administration as they see fit.

But all said and done, the obdurate critics of the Akufo-Addos administration such as Kevin Taylor ought to exercise a great deal of circumspection and consider criticising constructively.

Kevin Taylor, some of us have always held an unfailing conviction that governance is a serious business and as such it requires forward thinking, serious and committed group of people to bring about the needed progress.

However, it has not always been the case in Ghanas democratic dispensation. The multi-party democracy has given birth to both purposeful and coarse political parties.

And, as a consequence, we have for a long time been relying on lousy economic managers who cannot see their backsides from their elbows and have only succeeded in sinking the economy deeper and deeper into the mire through corrupt practices.

Kevin Taylor, in fact, some of us, as a matter of principle, share in the sentiments of the reflective sceptics who argue vehemently that despite spending 27 years in government, the successive NDC governments have failed woefully to improve upon the socio-economic standards of living of Ghanaians.

The contending schools of thought have been arguing consistently that the successive NDC governments only managed to destabilise Ghanas macroeconomic indicators through dreadful errors in decision-making.

Despite the unobjectionable facts and figures of favourable economic growth under Akufo-Addos administration, the NDC operatives are all over the place nagging, grumbling and censuring the NPP government for perceived slow pace in development in less than three years in office.

Kevin Taylor, the fact however remains that if the officials of the erstwhile NDC government had not squandered the funds meant for various developmental projects, the NPP government would have enough funds at its disposal to undertake a lot of developmental projects.

On 7th December 2016, discerning Ghanaians found in NPP, a redeemer, in whom they reposed their absolute trust to set them free from the NDC governments unpardonable economic enslavement.

Kevin Taylor, so who says that the critics are not absolutely right for suggesting that if discerning Ghanaians had not graciously intervened by showing the dreadful economic managers (NDC) the exit through universal adult suffrage, the terrible errors in decision-making and the rampant corruption would have obliterated Ghana off the world map completely?

Kevin Taylor, given the circumstances, we can confidently deduce that discerning Ghanaians made the right decision on 7th December 2016 by electing the septuagenarian Nana Akufo-Addo and retiring the middle-aged John Dramani Mahama.

Mind you, Kevin Taylor, a large portion of Ghanas scarce resources, regrettably, went down the drain due to the mismanagement and the rampant corruption perpetrated by the officials of the erstwhile Mahama administration.

There is admissible evidence of gargantuan bribery and corruption cases, including monies which were given to parasitic creatures who did not render any services towards the national development. Woyome and Akua Donkor come to mind.

And despite Mahamas government coarse administration, the loyalists NDC supporters would want discerning Ghanaians to believe that the erstwhile NDC government provided exceptional governance.

Truly, Kevin Taylor, vague understanding of patriotism exists in the minds of many Ghanaians, who prefer needless praise singing to defending the national interests.

Kevin Taylor, the good people of Ghana, unfortunately, witnessed so much scheming guiles, corruption, incompetence, nepotism, cronyism and frequent abuse of power in the erstwhile NDC government, and hence the vast majority of Ghanaians have permanently lost trust in the NDC.

Kevin Taylor, based on the prudent governance and the current favourable economic outlook, we can confidently state that Ghana is heading towards the right direction under the able leadership of President Akufo-Addo.

We must, therefore, take solace in the fact that the Akufo-Addos government is tackling the erstwhile Mahamas government economic mess head-on.

K. Badu, UK.

[emailprotected]

Disclaimer:"The views/contents expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not neccessarily reflect those of Modern Ghana. Modern Ghana will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this article."

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Kevin Taylor, youre a reporter, not an opinionist; youre guided by the rule of impartiality! - Modern Ghana

Presidential elections in Tunisia: who are the globalists betting on? – United World International

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On October 13, presidential elections will take place in Tunisia. The second round of the elections will feature famous liberal media tycoon Nabil Karoui and a conservative candidate Kas Saed, who has been nicknamed Robocop.

The winning candidate will be appointed for a five-year term and will exercise control over defense, foreign policy and national security.

Given Tunisias role as the center and cradle of the Arab Spring, the effects of these elections will have wide geopolitical implications.

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This election cycle will be a key event in the long and painful post-Arab Spring landscape. The country has established a mixed parliamentary-presidential system where the president is tasked with handling foreign affairs and defense issues.

The first round of election was held on 15 September 2019, but only around 35% of the population came out to vote and no candidate was able to win an absolute majority.Many candidates, including Munir Baatur (a homosexual), the singer Nermine Sfar and incumbent Prime Minister Yousaf Shaheed, were defeated in the first round.

After the sudden death of President of Beji Caid Essebsi, the authorities announced that the second round would take place on October 13, earlier than originally planned.

The second round will be a fight between the top two candidates, Kas Saed (an independent candidate) and Nabil Karoui (from the Heart of Tunisia party).

Saed is a professor, a lawyer and represents conservative Tunisians. He is known for his strong positions on the death penalty and gender issues (he is a strong supporter of the traditional family). He is also a strong opponent of the LGBTQ movement he claims that the spread of homosexuality is a result of interference from foreign countries.

Wikipedia

Unlike his opponent, his campaign was conducted with little to no advertising. A year ago he was unknown to anyone. His unexpected popularity despite having little to no TV presence or state support, came as a surprise to many people. His campaign has focused heavily on conducting fair elections and promising to fight corruption. He has promised electoral reforms such as legislation to staff local elections with regional representatives.

Some experts describe him as a conservative idealist, running on utopian themes of radical state decentralisation at home, and aspirational pan-Arab unity abroad. Others have called his campaign a popular reaction not just against corruption, but also against what he sees as a lack of vision that has plagued Tunisian politics.

Experts say that Saed will find himself in an unprecedented position for an Arab leader without the support of the establishment party.

Karoui is a liberal, a businessman and owns the Tunisian television company Nessma. On July 8, 2019, he was charged with money laundering, banned from leaving the country and his property seized. He was eventually arrested on August 23. While this might have ended another candidates chances, he managed to run for office from prison, and in October the Tunisian court ordered his release from prison.

His supporters claim that the arrest was intended to spoil the media tycoons election campaign. As a matter of fact, his imprisonment actually improved his image in the eyes of a number of voters who now see him as a political victim. In addition, his television channel Nessma is a powerful resource for his election campaign.

Nessma established an important charity dedicated to fighting poverty, something which has become a central theme of his campaign. The ordinary people among his electorate are attracted by his populist speeches (against poverty, corruption, etc.), and the business community supports him because of his capitalist liberal ideology.

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Curiously, mainstream media the day before accused Karooi of links to Trump and Russia, citing an insider contact, but Karooi denies any involvement. However, the incident does show that media efforts to accused Trump and Russia of interfering in other peoples elections extends beyond US borders.

Tunisia: Nabil Karoui to sue people behind smear campaign in connection to lobbying firm

The BBC, predictably, had interesting things to say on the issue. Their article contains the opinion of head of opinion poll firm Elka Ikbal Elloumi:

The message is clear, they [the people] are looking for new politicians Saed is a social phenomenon, he represents a need from citizens for equity and justice. Nabil Karoui represents the hope of poor people, vulnerable people, not only financially poor, but people who are looking for financial opportunity.

In parallel with the presidential election process, the parliamentary vote had recently taken place.

The Ennahdha party (Rached Ghannouchis moderate Islamist party) came in first place with 17.5% of the vote (40 of the 217 seats parliamentary seats). It was followed closely by the new Qalb Tounes, a party founded by media mogul Nabil Karoui who won 15.6% of the vote, or 33 seats.

This will make the upcoming presidential elections particularly interesting and uncertain. The electorate is particularly split.

The current coalition government has been severely criticized for failing to cope with the countrys economic difficulties, including unemployment rates exceeding 15%.

Many experts believe that the promotion of the two newcomers to the second round of voting in the countrys presidential elections is evidence of the Tunisian peoples disappointment in the establishment and desire for real change.

After the collapse of the presidents government, Zine El Abidine bin Ali Tunisi had already had a rather bumpy history, with the socio-economic situation in some sectors severely deteriorating. This presents a serious challenge for whoever is elected the new leader of the country.

The globalists are not particularly interested in promoting the capitalist candidate (there will be no a priori desire for social justice from most of Tunisias tycoons) nor the candidate who espouses traditional values. Rather, It is in their interest not to allow the formation of a singular effective power of any kind in order to maintain destabilization. The globalists are mostly afraid of the rise of a strong personality (such as the leaders of China, Turkey and Russia).

To illustrate this, the same BBC article concludes the article with an opinion of one Tunisian voter who says: I think weve reached a point where no individual, nor party has absolute power. This is essential.

Link:

Presidential elections in Tunisia: who are the globalists betting on? - United World International

SoftBank reportedly hired restructuring and bankruptcy bankers to help revive WeWork – INSIDER

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SoftBank hired that specialize in restructuring in order to save WeWork from bankruptcy.

According to Bloomberg,citing unnamed sources, SoftBank hired Houlihan Lokey, an American investment bank that specializes in bankruptcy, to try and revive the office rental company.

The paper said that Houlihan was assessing different ways for WeWork to cut liabilities, and would be going through its portfolio, one property at a time, and assess which assets were loss-making.

"Houlihan is working on cutting liabilities as WeWork mulls a separate deal that could hand control of the struggling office-sharing company to SoftBank, its biggest shareholder, according to the people," Bloomberg wrote.

Earlier this week, the Guardian reported that the WeWork was cutting 2000 jobs as soon as next week, as the company tries to battle through the crisis it's currently facing.

While by Tuesday evening WeWork's bonds dropped to even further lows, as investors feared that the real estate company wouldn't be able to pay back its own debt.

All of this comes amid reports that WeWork is weighing up a choice of JPMorgan or SoftBank to save the company,

The JPMorgan option would refinance the company to the tune of $5 billion which would include a $2 billion unsecured payment-in-kind, with a hefty 15% coupon, Bloomberg wrote.

While the SoftBank option would mean the Japanese firm effectively taking control of WeWork, as it would invest a $10 billion controlling stake in the firm. SoftBank previously valued WeWork at $47 billion, highlighting its fall from grace since failing to go public.

It has been reported that WeWork is currently favoring the JPMorgan option, despite SoftBank already investing billions in the firm.

Business Insider has reached out to WeWork for comment. SoftBank and Houlihan Lokey declined to comment to Bloomberg.

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SoftBank reportedly hired restructuring and bankruptcy bankers to help revive WeWork - INSIDER

Elizabeth Warren wades into debate on health care costs and bankruptcy – PolitiFact

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In a back-and-forth about Medicare for All and the cost of health care, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., directed the discussion back to medical debt and bankruptcy citing her own work from Harvard Law School.

"Back when I was studying it, two out of three families that ended up in bankruptcy after a serious medical problem had health insurance," Warren said.

This is a new emphasis in the ongoing debate over health care costs, and the debate over what role health care plays in American finances. Instead of focusing on uninsurance, Warren stepped into whether the insurance people currently have is sufficient.

But much of the research around medical debt and bankruptcy is controversial especially Warrens own work.

We decided to take a deeper look.

What the research says

Warrens campaign directed us to research published in 2009 in the American Journal ofMedicine. Co-authored by Warren, it looks at a random sample of 2,314 bankruptcy filers from 2007.

The paper examined what debtors reported as their cause of bankruptcy. Warren is referring here to people who either cited significant direct medical debt, remortgaging a home to pay medical debt, or lost income due to illness.

In that category, more than two-thirds of families had health insurance in fact, three-quarters did.

So from that simple standpoint, the number checks out.

The controversy

But it isnt necessarily that simple. This specific paper has long been the subject of controversy. In part, its because it focuses on people who have declared bankruptcy, rather than looking at the financial impact of medical debt at large.

Scholars are also quick to note that, in the majority of so-called "medical bankruptcies" identified in the paper, the issue wasnt debts incurred to pay off health care bills. Rather, the bigger problem was foregone income because people couldnt work.

Thats fueled a lengthy back-and-forth, in particular over whether this paper is actually useful in determining what role medical debt plays in fueling bankruptcies.

But its impact on this specific claim isnt so clear. Thats because Warren narrowed her statement, and focused on something less disputable.

For one thing, the paper is clear in finding that two-thirds of families in fact, more than that experienced bankruptcy after a medical problem despite having health insurance.

That finding was "the headline of the study," said Paul Ginsburg, a health economist and professor at the University of Southern California. (Ginsburg also noted the importance of foregone income in driving bankruptcies, rather than medical costs.)

And Warren qualified it further during the debate, by limiting this statistic to what was found "back when [she] was studying it" making it a less sweeping claim.

Whats more suspect is whether this finding even if accurate supports her next point: that the cost of health care is whats driving peoples financial problems, and that a generous single-payer plan would ameliorate this issue.

For instance, "You cannot go from that result to a conclusion that we need Medicare For All," Ginsburg said.

Health insurance is more generous today than it was when Warren studied it, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. And insuring everyone even as generously as Medicare For All suggests wouldnt necessarily address the issue of foregone income when people are sick, which the research suggests is a bigger financial concern.

Our ruling

Warrens claim comes from a paper that is controversial, and whose methods and interpretation have been called into question. That said, this statistic is fairly specific, and her wording in the claim precise. In itself, its a fair reflection of what the paper says.

Where caution is more important: Warren says this finding suggests the cost of health care is whats causing Americans financial harm. That isnt necessarily borne out, and requires more scrutiny.

This statement is accurate but would benefit from more information. We rate it Mostly True.

Link:

Elizabeth Warren wades into debate on health care costs and bankruptcy - PolitiFact

Fusion Connect Plans to Emerge from Bankruptcy with All of its Partners – Channel Partners

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Fusion Connect, which filed chapter 11 bankruptcy this summer, wants to continue doing business with all of its partners and has offered them new agreements.

The company plans to emerge from chapter 11 before the end of the year. Kevin Brand, most recently Fusions senior vice president of customer experience, has been named interim CEO, succeeding Matthew Rosen, who has resigned from the position.

Fusion filed chapter 11 after its acquisitions of MegaPath and Birch Communications cloud and business-services business failed to meet performance projections. Its lenders will own the business when it emerges from bankruptcy.

Michael Fair, Fusions senior vice president of channels and alliances, tells Channel Partners a top priority in developing the companys plans for emerging from chapter 11 has been to conduct a comprehensive review of its channel program with a clear focus on making it easier and more profitable to do business with us.

Fusion Connects Michael Fair

Were excited to announce that were planning to launch our new program in early January following our expected emergence before the end of the year, he said. To prepare for that launch and initiate the first of many planned advances in our program, weve offered all of our partners the opportunity to enter into a single agreement that consolidates the various agreements many partners had in place following the integration of our three legacy companies Fusion, Birch and MegaPath. Were confident that this will make it far easier to work with us by standardizing terms, commissions and commitments for new sales, as well as to provide consistent support across all services and regions. The new agreements will help lead to even stronger, more enduring and successful relationships with our loyal partners.

Master agent contracts will be slightly different to reflect their size and scope, Fair said.

Fusion Connects Kevin Brand

We are consolidating the multiple contracts partners currently have, standardizing payment dates, and providing the opportunity for increased commissions that incent sales of our strategic products, including UCaaS, SD-WAN and security, he said. Other basic terms and conditions will not change. Additionally, were offering new agreements to a number of partners representing less than 5% of our commissionable revenue, who have been inactive with us or who have produced very little new business over a long period. Were asking them to re-engage with us by selling a minimal amount of recurring new revenue. This will allow them to continue receiving commission payments and remain as direct partners in our new program. Those partners who fall in this category and are active with master agents will also be able to roll their bases to the master of their choice on a case-by-case basis.

Fusions goal is to have all new amendments and agreements signed by the end of October, Fair said.

Were also are implementing very reasonable objectives for incremental sales and customer retention consistent with industry best practices for channel management, he said.

Brand tells Channel Partners all of us at Fusion are looking forward to 2020 to pursue our strategic vision to find even more ways to build and grow with our partners, who are so critical to our continued success.

The actions weve taken throughout this process will provide

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Fusion Connect Plans to Emerge from Bankruptcy with All of its Partners - Channel Partners

Barneys and other major retailers that filed for bankruptcy in 2019 – AOL

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There's no denying theretail industry is facing a major crisis as many consumers' shopping habits have shifted from in-person to online shopping.

As brands grapple to keep up with the rise in e-commerce giants like Amazon, many haven't been able to stay afloat. This year alone, over a dozen retailers have already filed for bankruptcy or liquidation -- and experts predict that list to grow before 2019 ends.

Not every company that filed for bankruptcy will shutter, however, some retailers will work on restructuring.

Take a look at every brand that has filed for bankruptcy so far:

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Retailers that filed for bankruptcy in 2019

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LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - 2019/08/24: Diesel store amongst the Luxury brands in London's prestige shopping area in Knightsbridge. (Photo by Keith Mayhew/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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Barneys and other major retailers that filed for bankruptcy in 2019 - AOL

6 Stocks That Could Be Headed for Bankruptcy – Yahoo Finance

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These stocks need to perform better.

In late September, mall retailer Forever 21 became the latest major U.S. company to succumb to bankruptcy. Despite a booming economy, the retail sector has been under intense pressure from Amazon.com (ticker: AMZN) and other online retailers and has lost 197,000 total jobs since January 2017. Forever 21 joins several other massive retailer bankruptcies in the past two years, including Sears, Toys R Us, Payless Shoes and Claire's. Unfortunately, Forever 21 will likely not be the last big U.S. company to go the bankruptcy route. Here are six stocks that could also end up in bankruptcy.

Frontier Communications Corp. (FTR)

Wireline telecom company Frontier has seemingly been on the brink of bankruptcy all year, but it eased concerns about an imminent filing by making a $320 million debt payment in September. CFRA analyst Keith Snyder says declining subscriber numbers and looming debt payments are a bad combination for Frontier, and he's skeptical of the company's ability to financially navigate the next couple of years. To make matters worse, Frontier shares are now trading near $1, putting the stock at risk of delisting. CFRA has a "strong sell" rating and a price target of 50 cents for FTR stock.

J.C. Penney Co. (JCP)

After Sears declared bankruptcy in late 2018, J.C. Penney may be next in line. The company has not yet found a way to adapt to the new retail landscape. Last quarter, J.C. Penney reported another 7.4% revenue decline and a $48 million net income loss. Bank of America analyst Lorraine Hutchinson says even after the company's efforts to close down its worst-performing stores, the 9% drop in same-store sales last quarter was much worse than she anticipated. Bank of America has an "underperform" rating and price target of 75 cents for JCP stock.

Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (SKT)

Tanger is also getting hit hard by the downturn in brick-and-mortar retail businesses. The company reported a 3.7% decline in revenue last quarter and a 40.2% drop in net income. CFRA analyst Chris Kuiper says Tanger is being forced to choose between lowering its rent and leaving properties vacant, neither of which is good for business. Kuiper says Tanger is particularly exposed to apparel retail, which is most vulnerable to e-commerce disruption. CFRA has a "strong sell" rating and $13 price target for SKT stock.

Rite Aid Corp. (RAD)

Shares of drug Store Rite Aid are down 95% in the past three years. Revenue was down another 1% last quarter, and the company reported a $79.2 million net income loss. Perhaps most troubling is the company's $3.3 billion in debt at the end of 2018, a huge burden for a company with only a $408 million market cap. CFRA analyst Arun Sundaram says Rite Aid has a steep hill to climb to get back on a path to sustainable profit growth. CFRA has a "hold" rating and $7 price target for RAD stock.

Chico's (CHS)

Chico's is a retailer that owns women's lifestyle brands Chico's, White House Black Market and Soma. Last quarter, Chico's reported a 6.6% drop in revenue and a net income loss of $2.3 million. Hutchinson says Chico's will have difficulty turning a profit unless it finds a way to grow revenue. Chico's will take at least a $5 million fourth-quarter hit from tariffs, and Hutchinson says category pressures and changing styles in women's apparel and intimates create difficult long-term hurdles. Bank of America has an "underperform" rating and $1.70 price target for CHS stock.

Blue Apron (APRN)

Meal kit company Blue Apron has the distinction of being one of the most disastrous initial public offerings in recent history. After cutting its IPO range by about 40% in mid-2017, Blue Apron shares have tanked more than 90% since its IPO as sales tumbled and profits remain elusive. Last quarter, Blue Apron reported a 33.6% revenue decline and a net income loss of $7.7 million. In July, Morgan Stanley cut its price target by 70% to just $6. To avoid bankruptcy, Blue Apron must find a way to stop the bleeding.

Companies that need improvement to avoid bankruptcy:

-- Frontier Communications Corp. (FTR)

-- J.C. Penney Co. (JCP)

-- Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (SKT)

-- Rite Aid Corp. (RAD)

-- Chico's (CHS)

-- Blue Apron (APRN)

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6 Stocks That Could Be Headed for Bankruptcy - Yahoo Finance

Libra’s co-creator at Facebook touts progress after an exodus of key backers of the crypto coin – CNBC

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The co-creator of Facebook-backed libra defended the cryptocurrency on Wednesday after a number of recent high-profile companies abandoned the effort.

Libra ran into issues Friday after Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, eBay and Mercado Pago bolted. Booking Holdings, formerly Priceline, left Monday. Each of the companies would have potentially invested $10 million each into the project.

The digital currency will not be run by Facebook, but rather by a nonprofit association supported by a range of companies and organizations.

"It wasn't a tough week," said David Marcus, head of Facebook's Calibra digital wallet, which can serve as a way to store and exchange Libra. Calibra won't be the only wallet. It will interact with other Libra-accepted platforms.

"I would rather have all of these companies come with us," he added, saying that he understands companies have to respect shareholders who are skeptical of the digital coin.

Instead, Marcus pointed to Libra's progress in a "Squawk Box" interview. The founding members, including Uber, Lyft and Spotify, held their first meeting on Monday in Geneva, Switzerland where they settled on an organizational structure and a five-seat board of directors, including Marcus and representatives from Libra-backer Andreessen Horowitz, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm.

The goal of Libra using blockchain, the technology underlying bitcoin on other cryptocurrencies is to make it as easy to send money across the world as it is to send a photo. But unlike bitcoin and others, Libra will be backed by more stable government-backed money.

Governments so far have been skeptical of the digital coin, with policymakers around the world upping pressure on libra. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to face Congress next week to answer questions on libra.

Though Marcus stressed on Wednesday that the project is just that: an idea with room for improvement. Libra, which was announced in June, is aiming to launch in the first half of 2020.

"It's kind of odd that all of this is happening at the stage of this project because it's a project. It's an idea. It's a whitepaper. Nothing is operating yet," he said when asked about the political pressure. "It's kind of sad in a way to see all the issues that we currently have with the current system."

Marcus, testifying before House lawmakers, also indicated in July that the group fully plans to move forward with libra.

When asked by Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., whether Facebook would postpone its launch plans until regulations were in place, Marcus didn't give a definitive answer. Waters said his answer "was not a commitment."

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Libra's co-creator at Facebook touts progress after an exodus of key backers of the crypto coin - CNBC