Category: General

Tony Sirico, who played the impeccably groomed mobster Paulie Walnuts in The Sopranos and brought his tough-guy swagger to films including Goodfellas, died Friday. He was 79.

Sirico died at an assisted living facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said his manager, Bob McGowen. There was no immediate information on the cause of death.

A statement from Sirico’s family confirmed the death of Gennaro Anthony “Tony” Sirico “with great sadness, but with incredible pride, love and a whole lot of fond memories.”

McGowan, who represented Sirico for more than two decades, recalled him as “loyal and giving,” with a strong philanthropic streak. That included helping ex-soldiers’ causes, which hit home for the Army veteran, his manager said.

Steven Van Zandt, who played opposite Sirico as fellow mobster Silvio Dante on The Sopranos, saluted him on Twitter as “legendary.”

“A larger-than-life character on and off screen. Gonna miss you a lot my friend,” the actor and musician said.

Michael Imperioli, who portrayed Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos, called Sirico his “dear friend, colleague and partner in crime.”

“Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone I’ve ever known,” Imperioli said on Instagram.

Sirico was unconcerned about being cast in a string of bad guy roles, McGowan said, most prominently that of Peter Paul “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri in the 1999-2007 run of the acclaimed HBO drama starring James Gandolfini as mob boss Tony Soprano. (Gandolfini died in 2013 at age 51).

“He didn’t mind playing a mob guy, but he wouldn’t play an informant,” or as Sirico put it, a “snitch,” McGowan said.

Sirico, born July 29, 1942, in New York City, grew up in the Flatbush and Bensonhurst neighborhoods where he said “every guy was trying to prove himself. You either had to have a tattoo or a bullet hole.”

“I had both,” he told the Los Angeles Times in a 1990 interview, calling himself “unstable” during that period of his life. He was arrested repeatedly for criminal offenses, he said, and was in prison twice. In his last stint behind bars, in the 1970s, he saw a performance by a group of ex-convicts and caught the acting bug.

“I watched ’em and I thought, ‘I can do that.’ I knew I wasn’t bad looking. And I knew I had the (guts) to stand up and (bull) people,” he told the Times. “You get a lot of practice in prison. I used to stand up in front of these cold-blooded murderers and kidnappers — and make ’em laugh.”

Sirico also was cast outside the gangster mold, playing police officers in the films Dead Presidents and Deconstructing Harry. Among his other credits were Woody Allen films including Bullets over Broadway and Mighty Aphrodite, and appearances on TV series including Miami Vice and voice roles on the Family Guy and American Dad!

Sirico is survived by daughter Joanne Sirico Bello; son Richard Sirico; his brother, Robert Sirico, a priest; and other relatives.

Source: Voice of America

A Texas judge issued an order Friday to continue blocking the state from investigating two families of transgender youth who have received gender affirming medical care and said she was considering whether to prevent additional investigations.

The ruling extends in part a temporary order issued last month blocking investigations against three families who sued and preventing any similar investigations against members of the LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG Inc. The group has more than 600 members in Texas.

In her order Friday, Judge Amy Clark Meachum said she was still weighing whether to issue a similar order prohibiting similar investigations against the third family and PFLAG members. An order preventing those investigations had been set to expire Friday. An attorney last month said the third family of a transgender minor had learned after the lawsuit’s filing that the state had dropped its investigation into them.

The two families to whom Friday’s order applies would “suffer probable, imminent, and irreparable injury in the interim” without the order, Meachum wrote.

The ruling was the latest against the state’s efforts to label gender affirming care as child abuse.

The Texas Supreme Court in May allowed the state to investigate parents of transgender youth for child abuse while also ruling in favor of one family that was among the first contacted by child welfare officials following order by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

The latest challenge was brought by Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the families of three teenage boys — two 16-year-olds and a 14-year-old — and PFLAG.

“The Court recognized yet again that being subjected to an unlawful and unwarranted investigation causes irreparable harm for these families who are doing nothing more than caring for and affirming their children and seeking the best course of care for them in consultation with their medical providers,” the groups said in a statement.

The families had talked in court filings about the anxiety that the investigations created for them and their children. The mother of one of the teens said her son attempted suicide and was hospitalized the day Abbott issued his directive. The outpatient psychiatric facility where the teen was referred reported the family for child abuse after learning he had been prescribed hormone therapy, she said in a court filing.

A judge in March put Abbott’s order on hold after a lawsuit was brought on behalf of a 16-year-old girl whose family said it was under investigation. The Texas Supreme Court in May ruled that the lower court overstepped its authority by blocking all investigations going forward.

The lawsuit that prompted that ruling marked the first report of parents being investigated following Abbott’s directive and an earlier nonbinding legal opinion by Paxton labeling certain gender-confirming treatments as “child abuse.” The Texas Department of Family and Protective Service has said it opened nine investigations following the directive and opinion.

Abbott’s directive and the attorney general’s opinion go against the nation’s largest medical groups, including the American Medical Association, which have opposed Republican-backed restrictions filed in statehouses nationwide.

Arkansas last year became the first state to pass a law prohibiting gender-confirming treatments for minors, and Tennessee approved a similar measure. Judges have blocked laws in Arkansas and Alabama, and both of those states are appealing.

Meachum set a Dec. 5 trial on whether to permanently block Texas’ investigations into the families.

Source: Voice of America

A. SITUATION ANALYSIS

Description of the disaster On 17 February 2022, Malawi’s Ministry of Health reported a confirmed case of Type 1 wild poliovirus (WPV1) in Lilongwe district, followed by a declaration of an emergency by the Head of State. This was the first case since 1992 and it is also the first detection of a case of WPV1 in Africa since 2016.

The African continent has been declared free of wild poliovirus since 2020 and Malawi obtained a Polio free status in 2005. Genetic sequencing of this case linked the virus to a strain circulating in Pakistan’s Sindh Province in 2019, indicating that this is an imported virus. The detection of a single case of WPV1 outside of the world’s two remaining endemic countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, represented an emergency that required effective and at-scale response to prevent spread.

Following this development, the Ministry of Health (MoH), with support from partners, put in place strategies for elimination of polio in the country in line with the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Global Polio End Game Strategy.

Ministry of Health developed National Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) which deals with vaccine preventable diseases including Polio, Measles and Neonatal Tetanus. Generally, there is high number of children who are vaccinated in urban areas as compared to the rural areas. The Ministry has also intensified surveillance for these diseases in line with the WHO recommendations. Malawi has sustained good coverage of its entire vaccine antigen above 80% now for two decades and polio vaccine is no exception. The country also vaccinates its children with Inactivated Polio Virus vaccine in all the 29 districts across the country with sustained good coverage to date since introduction in 2018. To reduce the spread and further risks and in line with the WHO guidance and the International Health Regulations (IHR), the country has put in place additional activities to help in reducing further spread of the virus in the country. The country is also working very closely with the neighbouring countries, as these countries are also at risk of this outbreaks.

Malawi Red Cross Society, through this DREF Operation, is also supporting the polio eradication campaigns with social mobilisation and polio messaging activities in 6 districts across the country namely, Mzimba, Mzuzu, Dowa, Lilongwe, Mangochi and Mulanje.

Source: International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has made commendable efforts to mainstream gender into the Region’s peace and security mechanisms and processes to address the specific challenges faced by women and girls since the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 and other subsequent resolutions. This was said by Ambassador Lucy Mungoma, Chairperson of the SADC Mediation Reference Group (MRG), at the opening of a specialised training workshop for staff of the SADC Secretariat and MRG members on the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda.

The training workshop, running from 5th to 8th July 2022, was convened by SADC Secretariat, supported by the European Union (EU), and in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Service Centre for Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa. The workshop seeks to raise awareness on the importance of the WPS Agenda and to facilitate an understanding of the existing global and regional normative frameworks such as the UNSCR 1325 and its subsequent resolutions, the African Union Continental Result Framework (AU-CRF) 2018-2028 and SADC Regional Strategy on Women, Peace and Security (2018-2030). The workshop is also expected to enhance ability of SADC Secretariat officers and MRG Members to competently mainstream gender in the SADC peace and security interventions, including peacemaking, peacebuilding and peacekeeping.

The WPS Agenda refers to actions and processes to protect women and girls from the disproportionate effects of violent conflicts and insecurity, support their contributions to peace efforts in conflict and post-conflict situations and enhance their participation in decision-making for peacebuilding, peacemaking, peacekeeping processes.

Ambassador Mungoma said to date, six SADC Member States namely, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa have developed and are implementing national action plans (NAPs) on WPS, while other Member States are at advanced stages of finalising their NAPs. She said despite some challenges in implementing the UNSCR 1325 in SADC Region, there has been substantial progress in the Region in women representation and participation in politics and decision-making positions at different levels.

UNDP Resident Representative, Mr Ayodele Odusola, applauded the considerable progress and efforts that have been made at both the continental and regional level to advance the WPS Agenda especially following the adoption of UNSCR 1325 in the year 2000. At the SADC level, a number of regional frameworks and strategies that outline the specific objectives, mechanisms and targets to attain peace and security, women’s empowerment and gender equality have been adopted and operationalised. Mr Odusola reiterated the UNDP’s continued support for SADC’s commitment to advance gender and women empowerment, including women peace and security agenda in the Region, particularly in rolling out the implementation of the AUC-Continental Result Framework and SADC-Regional Strategy on WPS.

Mr Odusola said the participation of women is critical to the success of any peace-building process because if half the population is excluded from peace-building processes, peace will be impossible to achieve and that the involvement of women in peace-building brings on board an element of inclusiveness and a new perspective to the table.

Dr Kondwani Chirambo, Coordinator of the Support to Peace and Security in the SADC Region, said in order to strengthen the capacity of Infrastructures for Peace (I4Ps) at the SADC level, the Secretariat conducted a mapping exercise of regional and national I4Ps to identify their capacities, challenges and resources. The I4Ps are defined in terms of policies, strategies, plans, physical infrastructure, strategic partnerships and human capacities possessed by our trainees. Consequently, the operationalisation of the WPS Agenda falls under the enhancement of capacity of state and non–state I4Ps at national and regional levels in conflict prevention, management and resolution to effectively and peacefully address conflicts.

Ms. Tsitsi Fungurani, Senior Development Officer, Government of Canada said that the women, peace and security agenda is a central piece of Canada’s Feminist Foreign Policy, which includes the Feminist International Assistance Policy and Defence Policy. She said Canada is convinced that sustainable peace is only possible when women are fully involved in the resolution of conflict, and peace and security efforts and that more inclusive, gender-equal and peaceful societies are possible when women participate and lead in conflict prevention, conflict resolution and post-conflict state building.

Source: Southern African Development Community

The Malawi Electoral Commission has concluded public consultations with political parties as a part of the review process for constituency and ward boundaries. The last series of the meetings were held from 28 June to 1 July, 2022 with the 13 registered political parties.

The first to meet with the Commission was the UTM on 28 June and it was led by its party and State Vice-president, Right Honourable Dr Saulos Klaus Chilima.

On the morning of 29June 2022, the Commission held meetings with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) delegation led by Vice-president (Eastern Region) Hon Bright Msaka, SC. In the afternoon the commission interacted with a delegation from the United Democratic Front (UDF) led by Acting Party President, Hon Lillian Patel.

The Peoples Party (PP), led by party vice-president, Hon Beatrice Mwale met the Commission on 30th June 2022 and was immediately followed by the Alliance for Democracy (Aford) led by party leader, Hon Enoch Chihana.

On the afternoon of the same day, the Commission held a group meeting with presidents and leaders of seven registered political parties with no representation in Parliament.

The parties are Mbakuwaku Movement for Development (MMD), Umodzi Party, Peoples Transformation Party (Petra), Assembly for Democracy and Development (ADD), Malawi Forum for Unity and Development (Mafunde) Party, Freedom Party (FP) and Peoples Progressive Movement (PPM).

On 1 July 2022 the Commission concluded the engagements with political parties with an interaction with the leadership of the Malawi Congress Party led by Party and State President, His Excellency, Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera.

During the meetings, the Commission provided a platform for the parties to give their final feedback on the preliminary maps that were issued by the Commission.

The Commission also highlighted to the political parties’ issues that have been arising from the boundary review process, which started in May 2021, and how they have been addressed like whether to increase or decrease the number of constituencies.

“The Commission is aware of the issues which were raised and continue to be raised by stakeholders concerning whether the country should be taking the route of increasing number of seats from the current 193.

“No single council is ready to lose a constituency. The Commission has to reconcile the disconnect between the demand of the stakeholders on the ground for increased seats, and other stakeholders advocating for reduced number of MPs,” read part of a presentation by MEC Chairman, Justice Dr Chifundo Kachale to the parties.

The parties all agreed with a law reform proposal by the Commission to increase the interval for boundary review from five to 10 years.

The meetings with the parties were preceded by district public hearings that were organized by the Commission in all the councils in the country to get feedback from all electoral stakeholders on the preliminary maps and boundaries.

Meanwhile, the Commission is preparing to submit its final report to the Parliament in mid-August, 2022.

Source: Malawi Electoral Commission

While inflation remains high and economic forecasters are warning of a possible recession, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday reported job growth in the United States remains strong, with the economy adding 372,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate remaining at 3.6% for the fourth month in a row.

In its report, the bureau said the job numbers are comparable to where they were in February 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The report shows the most notable job growth in June occurred in the professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and health care sectors.

“Today, we learned that our private sector has recovered all of the jobs lost during the pandemic and added jobs on top of that. This has been the fastest and strongest jobs recovery in American history,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

The bureau reports manufacturing employment increased by 29,000 in June and has returned to its February 2020 level.

“The historic strength of our job market is one reason our economy is uniquely well positioned to tackle a range of global economic challenges – from global inflation to the economic fallout from Putin’s war,” said Biden. “No country is better positioned than America to bring down inflation, without giving up all of the economic gains we have made over the last 18 months.”

The continued strong job growth may ease fears of a recession. Analysts say the U.S. Federal Reserve may see it as an inflation indicator and prompt another rise in interest rates. Last month, the central bank raised interest rates by three-quarters of 1% in the hope of bringing down the highest inflation rate seen in nearly 40 years.

There is fear that further interest rate hikes – designed to bring down prices by cooling demand – could spark a recession.

The Washington Post reports economists and policymakers are hoping U.S. jobs growth — which has been hovering around 400,000 new positions per month for much of the past year — will slow to a sustainable pace that could help moderate inflation, without a significant rise in unemployment.

Source: Voice of America