Nigerian air travel could shut as unions pledge to join strike

By Camillus Eboh

© Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde FILE PHOTO: A passenger wearing a face mask pushes a trolley outside the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja

By Camillus Eboh

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's airports could shut down on Monday as four key unions said they would join an indefinite nationwide strike to protest an increase in power and petrol prices.

A Thursday statement issued by four unions representing pilots, engineers and other aviation professionals said they are "in full support" of a strike called by the Nigerian Labour Congress, which represents millions of workers across most sectors of Africa's biggest economy.

"All workers in the aviation sector are hereby directed to withdraw their services at all aerodromes nationwide as from 00hrs of 28th September," the unions said in a statement seen by Reuters.

The signatories included National Union of Air Transport Employees, the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Aviation said negotiations are happening at a high level; union leaders met yesterday with the Labour, Petroleum and Power ministries at the presidential villa, but reached no consensus.

Nigeria's government removed pump-price controls on petrol earlier this month, and roughly doubled power tariffs in an aim to shore up a budget battered by a fall in oil prices and an economic contraction brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Petrol subsidies drained billions from government coffers, while experts said artificially low tariffs were holding back much-needed investment in the nation's dilapidated power sector.

International lenders such as the World Bank have pressed Nigeria to make the reforms to qualify for budget support loans.

But the unions said the increases were poorly timed due to the economic hardship created by the pandemic, with high inflation and a recession looming after the economy contracted in the second quarter.

Union leaders previously said a reversal of the price hikes would avert the strike.

(Reporting By Camillus Eboh, writing by Libby George; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

Executives caught bragging of cozy government relationships as they sought approvals for controversial Alaskan gold mine


By Bill Weir, CNN Chief Climate Correspondent 

© Bill Weir/CNN Tom Collier, photographed when he was CEO of the Pebble Partnership, has worked with Republicans and Democrats.

For mining executives dreaming of a mountain of gold, they could go down as the Zoom calls that cost billions of dollars.


But for the Alaskan tribes, anglers and nature lovers trying to stop them, it could be the sting that finally ends the long battle over Pebble Mine.

Top executives hoping to blast open North America's largest gold and copper mine were secretly recorded describing in detail their cozy influence over US lawmakers and regulators. They also revealed their intentions to go far beyond what they were saying on applications for federal permits to work near the headwaters of Bristol Bay, Alaska -- one of the last great wild salmon habitats left on Earth.

"I mean we can talk to the chief of staff of the White House any time we want, but you want to be careful with all this because it's all recorded," said Ron Thiessen, CEO of Northern Dynasty Minerals, of official communications to the White House, as he himself was recorded unknowingly. "You don't want to be seen to be trying to exercise undue influence."

The "Pebble Tapes" were recorded by activists from the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency posing as Chinese investors. In the calls from August and September, which were released this week, Thiessen and Tom Collier, CEO of American subsidiary Pebble Limited Partnership, are heard boasting of the sway they hold, even as the project was hit by an unexpected permitting setback.

"The governor I count as a friend," Collier says of Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy. "I did, in my home, the largest private fundraiser for the governor when he was running for office and it's not unusual for the governor to call me."

Thiessen also described how Pebble uses Dunleavy as a back channel to the White House to avoid public scrutiny. CNN revealed last December that Pebble coached Dunleavy on how to lobby the White House.

The new recordings also show the mining executives saying how friendly insiders at the Army Corps of Engineers help them game the complex permit process being led by the Corps.

"Typically, with the Army Corps of Engineers, if there's something that's going to be out of the ordinary, they try and get us that information as soon as possible," Thiessen said.

The conversations are so damning, Northern Dynasty apologized "to all Alaskans" while announcing the resignation of Collier, who would have earned a $12 million bonus if the mine was permitted.

The angry backlash from the officials named has also put the whole project in doubt just weeks before the Army Corps of Engineers was expected to issue its decision on whether to give the green light to begin construction.

"The individuals in those videos embellished their relationships with state and federal officials at all levels," a statement from Dunleavy's office read, while officials at the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency said the tapes do not accurately represent their interactions with Pebble executives.

© Bill Weir/CNN The mine plans include a port development that could impact the Alaskan environment, as in Katmai National Park, where these brown bears were photographed.

STARVING BROWN BEARS

But the harshest rebuttals come from Alaska's US senators, Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, portrayed on the tapes as political animals who secretly approve of Pebble Mine but can't say so.

"Senator Murkowski, she's very political," Thiessen says in one tape. "She in her heart wants the project to go ahead. She will say things that appeal to sometimes people's emotions but that won't do any damage to the project overall."

Collier also claimed both senators "are just sort of sitting over in a corner and being quiet," embarrassed by their confusion over last month's letter from the Corps of Engineers, which cast the mine in doubt. 

© Liz Lynch/Getty Images Sen. Lisa Murkowski, pictured on Capitol Hill this week, called for a permit for Pebble to be denied.

"Let me be clear: I did not misunderstand the Army Corps' recent announcement," Murkowski said in a statement. "I am not 'embarrassed' by my statement on it, and I will not be 'quiet in the corner.' I am dead set on a high bar for large-scale resource development in the Bristol Bay watershed. The reality of this situation is the Pebble project has not met that bar and a permit cannot be issued to it."

Robin Samuelson, a longtime commercial fisherman opposed to the development, said the tapes reminded him of the Mob.

"It sounds like John Gotti and Al Capone talking, to me," he said. "All of us are being lied to."

And he had a message for Murkowski and Sullivan: "I'm imploring our senators to get out of the damn corner you're sitting in and show us some action."

Since the rich deposit of copper, gold, silver, and molybdenum was discovered in the late 1980s, Northern Dynasty and various partners have spent nearly 20 years and a billion dollars trying to get a federal permit. Their plans include new roads, docks, pipelines and lakes of acidic "tailings" waste on land prone to earthquakes, all in the middle of a delicate ecosystem that opponents believe is too close for comfort to the spawning streams of Bristol Bay.

In courtrooms and on airwaves, Pebble has fought a strange-bedfellows coalition that includes the Sierra Club, local tribes, scientists and Republican anglers like Donald Trump Jr. and Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Under President Barack Obama, the EPA invoked the Clean Water Act to all but kill the project, but Pebble Mine came back to life under Trump as Northern Dynasty agreed to eliminate the use of cyanide, shrink the footprint of the mine and only operate it for 20 years. But the Pebble Tapes reveal their plans to expand the mine for close to two centuries while developing several other new mines in the region.

"The Clean Water Act, it says that the Army Corps of Engineers 'will issue a permit based on the least environmentally damaging practicable alternative,'" Thiessen says in one of the conversations. "So I mean, you may still cause a lot of environmental damage but if it's the least damaging alternative, you get your permit."

© Bill Weir/CNN A core sample from the proposed Pebble Mine is mounted in the company offices above a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, a defender of the natural world.

The tapes also reveal a rare glimpse of the political shapeshifting used to gain advantage. Collier was a former chief of staff to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt under President Bill Clinton and the now-former Pebble CEO often used those credentials with environmentalists while becoming, "a well-known Republican fundraiser" in Alaska.

"Now, having said that, it's entirely possible that we may have Biden as a president, and if we do, I'm gonna brush off my Democratic credentials and start using them a little more actively than I do," Collier added.

"Everybody that's been listening to the Pebble debate for 10 years thinks I'm lying," Collier told CNN in 2018. "But I've got an ace up my sleeve and it is this permitting process. It is the truth-testing process. I'm if we're not telling the truth, we don't get a permit."

This time, Collier refused CNN's request for comment but a spokesman told the Washington Post, "He regrets the way he conveyed the influence and importance" of Alaska's senators.

© CNN Bristol Bay, one of the world's last pristine salmon spawning grounds, supports the local fishing industry.

© Shealah Craighead/White House Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, here with President Trump aboard Air Force One, was used as a go-between with the White House, the mine executives said.

Designer Bora Aksu presents pandemic-inspired collection at London Fashion Week


By Sarah Mills
2020-09-18

© Reuters/HENRY NICHOLLS Models prepare backstage of the Bora Aksu catwalk show at London Fashion Week 2020, in London

By Sarah Mills

LONDON (Reuters) - Turkish designer Bora Aksu said the coronavirus pandemic inspired his latest collection, which looks back over one hundred years to the Spanish flu pandemic and the end of World War One.

COVID-19 meant that Aksu's fashion show on Friday was one of only four taking place at London Fashion Week, according to the British Fashion Council, compared with the 46 shows that took place at the event last September.

The designer said that after such an isolating period earlier in the year due to the pandemic, he felt that not having a traditional show would have been "cutting off that human touch, I really couldn't do it."

He said of the pandemic: "It has so kind of affected all our lives and the way we operate and work that I could not take myself out of it."

It made him think of the 1918 flu pandemic and the accompanying time of mourning at the end of the war, and the much more optimistic period that followed.

The floaty white dresses with long socks and white boots reflected the minimal dressing of the nurses who treated the war wounded and those suffering from flu, he said.

Parading in London's autumn sunshine, models, wearing sheer face veils, also showed off tiered dresses in pastel shades of pink and blue, and dark purples, with prints and lace.

"The collections and the fashion actually should reflect the times that we be going through," Aksu told Reuters.

He said he wanted to send a message of hope by reminding people that after World War One and the Spanish flu pandemic, good times followed for many in the early 1920s.

(Reporting by Sarah Mills, Writing by Sarah Young; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Watch as 'huge UFO-shaped drone' shoots a green laser beam into the Milton Keynes sky

A green laser beaming into the Milton Keynes sky was caught on camera last night (Thursday, September 24) with some people comparing it to a UFO incident.


By Logan MacLeod
Friday, 25th September 2020

The laser was reportedly active in the Kingston area of the town at around 10pm. It is unknown who or what was responsible for it as of yet, but some people have given their version of events.

Tom Marvin, from Broughton, captured the incident on video. He said: "It first caught our attention as the beam shone through our bedroom window and it was really bright. My first thought was that it was a search light from a police helicopter but, after seeing the light shine as high into the sky as we could see, we knew it wasn’t.

"When we looked again we thought it was a huge UFO-shaped drone going up and down through the beam. This drone let off another beam which was shining in all different directions."

The laser shot up into the sky. Photo: Tom Marvin

Westley Gilbert, from Brooklands, said he saw news about the laser on Facebook and had to go and check it out for himself.

He said: "When I went into the garden to look I realised this was no ordinary laser, so I decided to get in the car and see where it took me. It was coming from a factory in the industrial estate in Kingston. I got out of my car to have a look and couldn't believe how big this beam was, shooting straight up into the sky.

"I started filming, and then this massive drone took off. I started following the laser up into the sky, it got halfway up and started shooting lasers all over the sky. It was truly amazing."

After some research, Westley believes it was a laser test carried out by a tech company based in the Midlands.

The green laser beam last night. Photo: MK Future

The Open University has said it was not involved, despite reports.

Milton Keynes Council has been contacted for comment.

The laser was reportedly in action at around 10pm. Photo: Tom Marvin

Japan is now tracking and investigating UFOs
By Austin Williams

TOKYO - Local Japanese news agencies reported earlier in September that Japan’s Defense Minister Taro Kono has requested the Self-Defense Forces follow new protocols regarding possible interactions or sightings of unidentified flying objects which might pose a threat national security.

In a statement obtained by Japan Times, Kono ordered members of the military beginning Monday, Sept. 14, to record, photograph and investigate any unknown objects that mysteriously enter Japanese airspace.

Orders include implementing “necessary analysis” of such sightings, including sightings by the public, according to Japan Times.

The outlet reported that in 2018, the Japanese government publicly stated its position on UFOs, saying, “No confirmation has been made of their existence.”

Kono’s September announcement came after an April press briefing by the Japanese Ministry of Defense, which announced that it would implement guidelines to track and investigate UFO sightings.

The decision followed the release and declassification of videos by the United States which show an encounters between UFOs and U.S. Navy pilots in 2004 and 2015.

Photo of UFO captured by U.S. Navy pilot.

After the release of the videos, reports surfaced of a top-secret Pentagon program conducting classified briefings for over a decade, analyzing various encounters between military craft and unidentified aerial vehicles.

In July, the Pentagon stated that the program was disbanded, but a Senate committee report from June revealed spending on a program called the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP) Task Force.

RELATED: ‘Not made on this earth’: Top-secret Pentagon UFO task force reportedly expected to reveal some findings

During a September press briefing, Kono said he has been in talks with U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on UFO sightings in Guam.

An Aug. 29 news release by the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed the meeting between Esper and Kono in Guam, a meeting that was meant to discuss “views on their shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”

Astrophysicist and former consultant for the UFO program since 2007, Eric W. Davis, told the New York Times in July that he gave a classified briefing to the Defense Department agency as early as March regarding “off-world vehicles not made on this earth.”

In September, the U.S. Navy acknowledged that three UFO videos that were released by former Blink-182 singer Tom DeLonge and published by The New York Times were of real "unidentified" objects.

“The Navy considers the phenomena contained/depicted in those three videos as unidentified," Navy spokesman Joseph Gradisher told The Black Vault, a website dedicated to declassified government documents.

This story was reported from Los Angeles.

'No I hadn't been drinking': Fuzzy yellow 'UFO' hangs in sky for 10 minutes before vanishing

The strange object was lingering over Redmashall village

The strange object seen in the sky (Image: Paul Davies)

A puzzling fuzzy bright yellow circle was spotted hovering in the sky this week - before suddenly vanishing.

Paul Davies saw the "UFO" over Redmarshall, near Stockton, on Wednesday night, before it "just disappeared".

He whipped out his phone and snapped some blurry photos of the strange object in the distance before sharing the unusual sight with Teesside Live.

He said: "So I saw a UFO Wednesday, it was bright yellow circle with bright yellow lines coming out of it, symmetrical all the way around and it just hung there in the sky for about 10 minutes.

"Then it just disappeared!

"It photographed totally different to the naked eye - and no I hadn’t been drinking."

COMMENT
SC
Slow Clap For Boris2 HRS AGO
It wouldn't be a UFO photo if it wasn't blurred!

Breonna Taylor: A woman killed. An officer shot. And no one legally responsible

David A Fahrenthold Sep 25 2020





Two police officers were shot in Louisville, Kentucky, amid protests after a grand jury brought no charges of homicide against police for the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.

ANALYSIS: In the early hours of March 13, police broke down the door to an apartment in Louisville, Kentucky. Three men – one inside the apartment and two officers trying to get in – fired guns. A police officer was wounded. Breonna Taylor, an unarmed bystander who lived in the apartment, was killed.

And none of the three men who fired has been charged with a crime.

Legal experts say the Taylor case reveals an unresolved conflict in US law. A police tactic meant to keep officers safer – raiding homes late at night, giving occupants little or no warning – can conflict with “castle doctrine” laws meant to keep homeowners safe by giving them leeway to use deadly force against intruders.

In this case, Taylor's boyfriend saw the police and thought they were intruders. He says he fired in self-defence. The police fired back, in self-defence against his self-defence.


Cries of 'Breonna Taylor!' from coast to coast

Activists chanted Taylor's name on the streets of Louisville, New York City, Pittsburgh and Oakland, after a grand jury declined to charge police officers for her death

The result, as in other cases, was a tragedy that the law didn't prevent and won't punish.

“There's a gunfight, but no one is criminally responsible,” said Michael Mannheimer, a law professor at Northern Kentucky University. “As unfortunate and as strange as that sounds.”

On Wednesday (local time), the announcement that the officers who shot Taylor would not face charges set off demonstrations around the country.

In Louisville, two police officers were shot on Wednesday night. One officer was struck in the hip and was treated and released from the hospital on Thursday. The other was in stable condition with an injury to the abdomen. Police arrested a suspect but declined to comment about the motive for the shootings.

Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, posted an illustration of her daughter on Instagram and wrote in the caption “#ThesystemfailedBreonna”.

DARRON CUMMINGS/AP
People gather in Jefferson Square in Louisville, Kentucky.

Legal experts said the failures that led to Taylor's death appear to have begun long before the police officers arrived at her apartment. They said a major cause was the Louisville police's decision to seek a “no-knock” search warrant for Taylor's apartment, allowing them to enter without announcing themselves as police.

To justify the “no-knock” warrant, police had told a judge that they were investigating Taylor's ex-boyfriend for drug trafficking and that they thought the ex-boyfriend was receiving packages of drugs at her home. They said they needed to enter without knocking because “these drug traffickers have a history of attempting to destroy evidence”, according to a copy of the application for the search warrant.

The warrant was approved.

That night, the three officers in plain clothes were sent to Taylor's apartment. Daniel Cameron, a Republican, Kentucky's attorney general, said that although the warrant allowed them to enter without warning, the officers actually did knock and announce themselves as police.

JOHN MINCHILLO/AP
Police and protesters clash in Louisville on Wednesday.

But Kenneth Walker, Taylor's boyfriend, has said he didn't hear that. He said he heard only knocking, and then the door being broken down. He had a registered handgun and fired it once at the intruders.

Even after they fired back – missing Walker but striking Taylor, who was standing nearby – Walker said he did not know they were the police.

“I don't know what is happening,” Walker said in a call he made to 911. “Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.”

Walker's one shot hit police sergeant Jonathan Mattingly in the thigh and pierced his femoral artery, but the officer narrowly missed a fatal injury. Walker was charged with attempted murder and assault, but prosecutors dropped those charges in May.

Under Kentucky's version of the castle doctrine – a home-defence provision common in many states – residents are allowed to use defensive force against someone “forcibly entering” a dwelling. These laws, which have their origins in English common law, are distinct from “stand your ground” laws, which govern how people may respond to perceived threats in public places outside the home.

JOHN MINCHILLO/AP
Police stand at an intersection in Louisville after an officer was shot on Wednesday.

Kentucky's castle-doctrine statute doesn't allow for the use of force against police. But Walker said he didn't know he was facing the police, according to Louisville prosecutor Thomas Wine, a Democrat.

“It certainly does create a problem,” Wine said in May when asked about the conflict between no-knock warrants and castle-doctrine laws.

“What separated these two parties was a door,” Wine said, meaning Walker and the police. “And it's very possible that there was no criminal activity on either side of that door because people couldn't hear what the other party was saying.”

Cameron, the state attorney general, investigated the actions of the three officers at the scene that night – Mattingly, Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison. He said that Mattingly and Cosgrove had fired in response to Walker's first shot and that their bullets struck Taylor. Cameron said the two together fired 22 shots, but it was unclear which of the officers had fired the shot that killed Taylor.

Once Walker fired, the two officers were justified in firing back, Cameron said.

“According to Kentucky law, the use of force by Mattingly and Cosgrove was justified to protect themselves. This justification bars us from pursuing criminal charges in Ms. Breonna Taylor's death,” Cameron said at a news conference on Wednesday.

“This is a tragedy,” Cameron said. “And sometimes the criminal law is not adequate to respond to a tragedy.”

JOSHUA LOTT/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
A mural of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in Louisville.

Hankison, who was fired by the Louisville Metro Police Department earlier this year, was outside the apartment when the firing began. He fired 10 times, through a window and a sliding-glass door, Cameron said. None of his bullets appear to have hit Taylor, Cameron said.

Hankison was the only one of the three officers charged with a crime: He faces three counts of “wanton endangerment” because some of his shots passed through a wall and entered a neighbouring, occupied apartment. None of the three people in that apartment were injured, Cameron said.

After Taylor's death, Louisville banned no-knock warrants and passed a law requiring police to wear body cameras while serving warrants.

Taylor's death is one of a string of cases where gunfire occurred during the execution of “no-knock” warrants. In Houston last year, two people were killed and five police officers injured during a no-knock raid on a home. No drugs were found, and police said that the search warrant had been based on false information provided by an officer.

Many police chiefs have begun to recognise the dangerous conflict that exists between castle-doctrine laws and no-knock warrants – and to sharply reduce the use of those warrants, said Chuck Wexler of the nonprofit Police Executive Research Forum. Except in extreme circumstances, officers have other options, Wexler said. For one, they could simply wait for their subject to leave the house.

“Police chiefs are asking themselves, 'Is it worth it?' And the answer is no,” Wexler said. “There's so much risk involved, and there's another way to accomplish the same thing.”

Congressman Al Green calls for end to systemic racism
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/300116748/breonna-taylor-a-woman-killed-an-officer-shot-and-no-one-legally-responsible
FOX 26 Reporter Damali Keith speaks with Congressman Al Green to get his thoughts on the charging decision related to the Breonna Taylor case.

The Washington Post

Brazil women's surfer Maya Gabeira breaks world record for biggest wave

Sep 24 2020

RED BULL Brazil big wave surfer Maya Gabeira.

Brazil surfer Maya Gabeira has extended her women’s world record and beaten the men to win the award for the biggest wave ridden this year.

The wave measured 73.5 feet and was ridden at the Praia do Norte in Nazaré, Portugal, on February 11.

NEW RECORD: Largest wave surfed - unlimited (female) - 73.5 foot (22.4 metres). Congratulations to Brazil's Maya Gabeira 🌊🏄🏻‍♀️
🎥 @wsl / Pedro Miranda pic.twitter.com/I71oqKYadS— GuinnessWorldRecords (@GWR) September 10, 2020

It was officially ratified scientifically for the Guinness World Records by wave engineers and scientists with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Southern California Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering.

It was also acknowledged at the World Surf League’s annual big wave awards this month.

Importantly, it also edged the 70-foot effort by top men’s big wave rider Kai Lenny of Hawaii for the overall WSL award.

“Although I say I'm not a competitive person, I was very in the zone and braver than I usually am on this day," Gabeira, 33, said of the tow-in ride that earned her the double honour.

"I was risking more than I usually like to do. When I let go of the rope, I had a feeling it could be the one but wasn't sure. The speed was very high but the noise that the wave made when it broke made me realise that this was probably the biggest wave I'd ever ridden.

"This world record really strikes me as quite amazing because the size of the wave was measured taller than the men's size for the winner, so it means a woman actually rode the biggest wave of the year overall.

"That was something I had dreamed of years ago but not as something realistic. There was no representation for me to believe that it was possible but to see that happen is incredible. This is seen as an extremely male-dominated sport, so to have a woman be able to represent that is quite rare."

Gabeira has had to overcome her demons and some criticism from male surfers to regain her place in the top echelon of big wave surfing.

In 2013, Gabeira wiped out on a 50-foot wave at the same location. After being held under water for an alarming amount of time, she surfaced to grab a tow-rope from a rescuer on a jet ski. But she was dragged to the beach face down and there were fears for her life when she reached shore.

RED BULL
Brazilian surfer Maya Gabeira has a long history with the dangerous Nazare wave in Portugal.

She needed CPR to recover and the wipeout had also snapped her right fibula and herniated a disk in her lower back.

She needed three back surgeries to get over the injury that sidelined her for several years, costing her valuable sponsorships.

Her Hawaiian rival Paige Alms was stoked to see Gabeira edge the men for the award.

“I think it’s really important for the next generation of girls growing up to see women accomplishing these things,” Alms, 32, told the New York Times.

“You can only really dream as big as what you can see.”

Alms noted the disparities between the men and women in this dangerous category of surfing.

“Of the top 10 big wave women in the world, there’s three getting paid,” Alms said.

“The top 10 male big wave surfers own homes, travel year-round and bring their families with them.”

Three workers accused of creating man cave under New York's iconic train station Grand Central Terminal
 Sep 25 2020

AP
The "man cave" under Grand Central Terminal in New York.

Three railroad workers have been suspended for turning a storage room under New York's Grand Central Terminal into an unauthorised “man cave” with a television, a refrigerator, a microwave and a futon couch, officials say.

A Metropolitan Transportation Authority investigation found that managers at Metro-North Railroad were unaware of the hideaway beneath Track 114.

"Many a New Yorker has fantasized about kicking back with a cold beer in a prime piece of Manhattan real estate – especially one this close to good transportation,” MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny said in a news release.

“But few would have the chutzpah to commandeer a secret room beneath Grand Central Terminal.”

Three Metro-North employees – a wireman, a carpenter foreman and an electrical foreman – were suspended without pay pending disciplinary hearings.

AP
Three railroad workers have been suspended for turning a storage room under New York's Grand Central Terminal into an unauthorised "man cave" with a television, a refrigerator, a microwave and a futon couch.

The investigation began after the MTA's office of the inspector general received an anonymous tip in February 2019 alleging that there was a “man cave” under Grand Central with “a couch and a flat screen TV” where three specific employees would “hang out and get drunk and party.”

Investigators found the room, which had wooden cabinets designed to conceal the TV and futon, according to the report.

Railroad officials said the space presented a fire hazard because rescue workers would have had difficulty accessing an unmapped room.



AP

Crowd boos as Trump pays respects to  ATTENDS late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg LAYING IN STATE

Kevin Freking 4:18, Sep 25 2020

THE FIRST WOMAN AND JEW TO BE SO HONOURED 

Trump booed while paying respects to late Justice Ginsburg

U.S. President Donald Trump was hit with cries of 'Vote him out' as he visited the U.S. Supreme Court, where the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in repose.

US President Donald Trump paid respects to late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Thursday morning, just two days before he announces his nominee to replace her on the high court.

The US president and first lady Melania Trump – both wearing masks – stood silently at the top of the steps of the court and looked down at Ginsburg's flag-draped coffin, surrounded by white flowers.

The death of the liberal-leaning justice has sparked a controversy over the balance of the court just weeks before the November presidential election.

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP
US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump pay respects as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in repose at the Supreme Court building.

Trump has called Ginsburg an “amazing woman,” but some spectators were not happy that he came.

Moments after he arrived, booing could be heard from those holding about a block away from the building.

The spectators chanted “vote him out” as the president stood near the coffin.

ALEX BRANDON/AP
US President Donald Trump wants to replace Ginsburg on the Supreme Court before the November 3 election.

He walked back into the court as the chants grew louder.

As the motorcade returned to the White House, there were also chants of “Breonna Taylor" from some spectators standing on the sidewalk.

AP

ZEN AIRLINES 
'My spirits will be lifted': Japan embraces the flights to nowhere
Sep 25 2020
Qantas 'Flight to Nowhere' Sells out Within Minutes

The "flight to nowhere" in Australia sold out in ten minutes. People have been deprived of travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The scenic flight on the A380 was sold out (file photo).

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and with the spread of the novel coronavirus causing a dive in the use of passenger planes, major airlines are focusing on "scenic flights," by utilising planes that are not in service.

In what seems to be a vain effort to make up for the loss of revenue caused by the drop in flights, the concept is gaining popularity and tickets are selling out.

The world's largest double-decker Airbus, the A380, which is also known as a "flying hotel," normally operates on flights to Hawaii. However, due to low demand, the Hawaii route is currently out of service and the plane has not been used.

In its second attempt following one in August, All Nippon Airways (ANA) flew the A380 on a 90-minute scenic flight over Mt. Fuji, Nagoya and Miyakejima island, then back to Narita, on the Sunday of the four-day weekend.

Both flights of about 350 seats, including economy class (from 14,000 yen or NZ$200) and first-class (50,000 yen or US$725) were sold out. A 39-year-old office worker from Wakayama City said, "I rarely have the opportunity to fly on the A380. Even with the coronavirus crisis, my spirits will be lifted."