A groundbreaking point-of-care machine that determines whether an infection is viral or bacterial has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for both children and adults.
Last year, MeMed received CE [European Union] clearance for sales of its testing platform in Europe.
The MeMed BV test is an immune-based protein signature test that distinguishes, within 15 minutes, between a bacterial or viral infection from a blood sample.
This critical information enables physicians to know immediately if an antibiotic is called for, and to avoid antibiotic overuse.
“For those of us who care for acutely ill children, we have been waiting decades for accurate, rapid diagnostics to confidently guide the care of moderately ill children without a clear focus of infection or recognizable viral illness,” said Harvard Medical School professor, Dr. Rich Bachur, chief of emergency medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital.
“This novel test offers promise to help differentiate those children with self-limited viral illness from those with possible bacterial infection, thereby supporting the judicious use of antibiotics,” Bachur said.
FDA clearance was based on a multi-center blinded clinical validation study enrolling over 1,000 children and adults and addresses goals laid out in the U.S. National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria.
Headquartered in Haifa, MeMed has established its American base in Boston and is ramping up commercial activities across the United States.
NAIROBI, Kenya — Christine Marita, 36, a former worshipper at the Helicopter of Christ Church in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, sold all her possessions in 2016, and gave the proceeds to the church’s founder, Thomas Wahome Njuguna, hoping he would pray for her to get her a job.
“I was hopeless after searching for a job for more than five years,” she told Zenger News.
“So, when I visited the church, I requested the pastor to pray for me to get a job. He said I must sacrifice by selling the valuables I had and give the money to the church. Due to my faith in him, I sold most of my household items.”
One year later, Marita was still struggling to find a job.
“I lost hope and faith in church because my miracle never came to be. I realized later that many congregants had fallen prey to the pastor’s requests, and their miracles never materialized. We were enriching him!”
Marita, who now works as a beautician, says that they could not sue the pastor because they do not have any evidence to present before the court.
However, Wahome termed Marita’s claims as “the devil’s work” to tarnish his name.
“The local and international media has written all manner of articles about me,” he told Zenger News.
“This one of Marita is just a drop in the ocean of what I have been through. Let her come with the proof that I conned her. I will not be shaken. My enemies in the ministry are fighting me spiritually for my good deeds to the people.”
Timothy Nzyoki Ndambuki, the chairperson of the National Council of Churches in Kenya, says that some preachers have turned “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
“Con artists in the name of religious leaders are harming society,” he told Zenger News, of the breed of protestant preachers who preach that financial wellbeing is God’s reward.
Known as the prosperity gospel, this kind of preaching emerged and took root in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s and was popularized by famous televangelists such as Oral Roberts, who died in December 2009.
Critics say that this form of preaching departs from Christianity’s core values of humility and self-sacrifice and has become an avenue for rogue preachers to enrich themselves off the sweat of their flock.
High poverty levels and the desire to get rich quickly are driving up an explosive growth of prosperity gospel in Africa in general and in Kenya in particular.
“However, their days are numbered,” Ndambuki told Zenger News.
He said there are more than 10,000 churches in Kenya, but only 32 are registered members of the National Council of Churches in Kenya.
Believers in a church service in Nairobi. (Courtesy of the National Council of Churches of Kenya)
“These are the only churches that the council can regulate. The remaining thousands are the ones causing havoc. This is why we have many cases of pastors conning their followers by charging them for miracles. It’s absurd!”
A member of parliament, Clement Muturi Kigano, introduced a motion in parliament in 2019 that would have made spiritual leaders in Kenya accountable and transparent financially.
“Unfortunately, the motion did not receive enough support from my fellow legislators,” he told Zenger News.
“Had it been passed into law, it would have tamed religious leaders who are extorting their followers, rendering them poorer and hopeless.”
Kigano, who plans to revive the motion before the next general elections in August 2021, says that most religious leaders con their congregants publicly with false promises of a better life.
“We have pastors who stage miracles to attract more followers. They tell their followers to “panda mbegu” [plant a seed by giving a certain amount of money as an offering in Kiswahili] for them to get a breakthrough in life. This has to stop.”
Ndambuki said they are in talks with the government on whether the state should regulate religious activities.
“We believe that the government has a role to play in this case of uncontrolled and unregulated religious activities. We need laws to restore sanity.”
Al-Hajj Yusuf Murigu, a board member of the executive committee of the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya, an umbrella that brings together all major faith communities in Kenya, echoed Ndambuki’s sentiments.
“It is time to clean our house and smoke out all fake religious leaders misleading people by performing fake miracles to fleece them,” he told Zenger News.
Castin Nyambura said in 2019 she fell prey to the wiles of Peter Manyuru, the founder of Jesus Teaching Ministry in Nairobi, who asked her for a $50 fee for a one-on-one special prayer session.
“A friend convinced me of how the pastor performs miracles in his church,” she told Zenger News.
“I hoped to get a breakthrough in my business, but what I saw and heard baffled me. I was to pay for special prayers. Additionally, I was to buy adhesive stickers with inscriptions of the church, which I would stick on my bed and my shop’s door to ward off evil spirits.”
Nyambura left the church with a promise to come back the following Sunday with the cash, which she never did.
Michael Ambenge, an assistant pastor at the church, said that the church sells products “anointed” by Manyuru, but the worshippers are not forced to buy them.
‘We have more than 1,000 congregants who attend the church in sessions,” he told Zenger News.
“Remember, we have bills to be paid. This is why we sell the anointed oil, pens, handkerchiefs, and even notebooks to them.”
Ambenge said congregants pay money to see Manyuru as a vetting mechanism.
“The church is like a marketplace. Not everyone who comes here is serious with the word of God, and therefore we have to keep jokers off by charging anyone who wants to have a one-on-one prayer session with the pastor. Imagine if the pastor was attending to more than 1,000 congregants daily. He will be drained. So we have to charge people.”
There have been curious cases of wealthy worshippers abandoning their careers, deserting their families, and giving their properties to certain charismatic preachers.
They also claimed that the preacher had influenced Njagi to vacate her posh apartment in Nairobi to his ministry and cut her off from her family, prompting police intervention.
“We have seen them stage-manage miracles to gain more followers,” he told Zenger News.
“This needs to stop, or else the future of Christianity in Kenya is doomed.”
All places of worship should be registered with the Registrar of Societies and must have a minimum of ten persons, according to Section 4 of the Societies Act.
However, some upcoming churches have less than ten members, while most churches in rural areas are not registered.
Religious leaders from Kenya opposed the proposed religious rules of 2015. (Courtesy of State House-Kenya)
Kenya’s former Attorney General Githu Muigai attempted in 2015 to rein in errant preachers through the Religious Societies Rules, meant to guide religious practice in Kenya.
However, opposition from religious leaders forced President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta to ask the Attorney-General to review the rules to align with the Kenyan constitution, which guarantees the freedom of worship.
Arnold Maliba, a public policy analyst, said Kenyatta’s move gave the religious leaders in Kenya a feel that they are “untouchable.”
“Since Githu Muigai’s attempt, there has never been any communication on the progress of the amendments to the Religious Societies Rules,” he told Zenger News.
“This explains why we have many unregulated religious activities and unregistered churches in Kenya. Without proper laws, religion will continue to be misused by selfish people.”
White blood cells called eosinophils can be “summoned” in order to fight cancer by both destroying the cancer cells directly as well as recruiting the immune system’s cancer-fighting T-cells, according to a new study published in the journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Eosinophils produce powerful destructive proteins intended for fighting parasites. However, in the modern Western world, where high levels of hygiene have significantly reduced the risk of many parasites, eosinophils can be harmful, inducing allergies and asthma.
Considering the destructive power of eosinophils, the researchers decided to test the potential benefits of these white blood cells if turned against cancer cells.
Examining tissue samples of lung metastases taken from breast cancer patients, the researchers found that eosinophils reach the lungs and penetrate cancerous tissues, where they often release their destructive proteins and summon T-cells for reinforcement. Ultimately, T-cells gather in the affected lungs, slowing the growth of tumors.
Improved immunotherapy medications
In the absence of eosinophils, lung metastases were much larger than those exposed to the white blood cells. These findings led to the conclusion that eosinophils could serve as a basis for improved immunotherapeutic medications to fight cancer effectively.
“We chose to focus on lung metastases for two main reasons. First, metastases, and not the primary tumors, are often the main problem in treating cancer, and the lungs are a major target for the metastasis of many types of cancer,” said lead researcher, professor Ariel Munitz of Tel Aviv University’s department of microbiology and clinical immunology.
“Second, in a preliminary study we demonstrated that eosinophils gather in tumors developing in mucous tissues like the lungs, and therefore assumed that they would be found in lung metastases as well,” he said.
Compared to traditional techniques like chemotherapy, immunotherapy generally leads to longer protection from cancer and fewer side effects. This new discovery may contribute to the development of new methods of immunotherapy.
“Enhancing the number and power of T-cells is one of the main targets of immunotherapy treatments administered to cancer patients today,” said Munitz.
Fire has severely damaged the historic Iron Bridge — also known as the Industry Bridge — in Rome.
Authorities said the large blaze that broke out over the weekend was possibly ignited as a result of a damaged gas pipe under the bridge, which connects the neighborhoods of Ostiense and Portuense.
No injuries were reported in the fire, which was extinguished on Oct. 3. Some sections of nearby neighborhoods were without electricity for several hours, authorities said
The 143-yard-long cast-iron bridge over the Tiber River, which dates to between 1862 and 1863, is an anomaly in a city where most other bridges are built of stone. It was prefabricated in England and erected to connect with what was then the new Rome Termini train station.
The fire, which started shortly before 11 p.m. on Oct. 2, quickly engulfed the metal structure, which has gas and electricity pipes running along its length.
Around 40 firefighters arrived on scene, but they were reportedly delayed by electricity cables that had to be removed before they could begin to fight the blaze. After about 40 minutes, they had the fire under control. While firefighters were still on location, a 23-foot area under the road that was used for gas pipes, cables, partially collapsed, according to the fire department.
The cause of the fire that damaged the Iron Bridge is under investigation. (Italian National Fire Service/Zenger)
Three nightclubs in the vicinity were evacuated and power outages were in Ostiense, Trastevere and Monteverde.
The fire was completely extinguished by 4 a.m. Oct. 3.
The bridge was declared unusable and the transit of boats along the stretch of the river was also prohibited, the emergency services said.
An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the fire.
The fire broke out on the eve of the mayoral election in Rome. One of the key issues in the run-up to the poll was “decay” in some of the city’s infrastructure, services and deportment in general.
The bridge, which was transported in pieces from England and assembled at the location for trains, is made of iron and cast iron arches resting on pylons made of cast iron filled with concrete. The structure was raised in the middle to allow easy access for steamers and military vessels.
In 1911, the bridge was renovated and from then on used by pedestrians and vehicles traveling in both directions.
Last year, the Caprigliola bridge in northern Italy between the Aulla and La Spezia partially collapsed, raising concerns across the country about some of the country’s infrastructure. The bridge was lightly traveled at the time due to the coronavirus pandemic, and only two drivers suffered minor injuries.
From his vantage point as general partner of international tech investment firm Flashpoint Ventures, Alex Konoplyasty sees the construction and property technology sector rising fast on the Israeli horizon.
This was a contributing factor in London-based Flashpoint’s decision to open a Tel Aviv office in 2019 and to announce in March its plan to invest at least $100 million in Israeli startups over the next three years.
“We have $400 million under our management, and Israel has been a very important market for us. We’ve invested about $30 million of capital into eight [Israeli] companies,” Konoplyasty said.
Among those are property-management platform Guesty and Bllink, a new streamlined payment and collection system for tenants and residential managers.
Flashpoint Ventures co-founder and general partner Alex Konoplyasty (Courtesy of Flashpoint)
“Guesty were early riders of the prop-tech wave, founded by twin brothers with personal experience in this space,” said Konoplyasty. “It was an early-stage investment, but we took the risk because we believed in it, and it has been very successful for us.”
He said that property, construction and real estate are big, broad and conservative markets.
“Technology has been slow to penetrate these markets. But several things happened: First, alternative business models have come up like WeWork, Airbnb and booking.com, which enabled a lot of small entrepreneurs to enter this newly digitized market,” he said.
“The wave we see now is driven by Covid as people are self-isolating and there is a need for flexible work solutions and remote construction-site oversight.”
To fill those needs, the Israeli con-tech and prop-tech ecosystem has grown nearly 800 percent in the last four years, encompassing about 200 startups today, according to Israel’s ConTech Construction Innovation Zone.
Konoplyasty said traditional real estate and construction firms outside Israel are investing in Israeli con-tech and prop-tech.
And that includes the world’s largest construction nation, China.
Amalia Paz, co-founder of Bricks Proptech Innovation Center. Photo courtesy of BPIC
Haier Israel Innovation Center and its HCH Ventures recently led a startup roadshow aimed at Chinese executives and investors.
The presenter was Amalia Paz, co-founder of Bricks Proptech Innovation Center, which matches real-estate owners, developers and operators in Israel, the US, the UK and Asia with relevant Israeli startups.
“There is not one week that we do not receive inquiries from the largest players in the industry to connect them to relevant Israeli technologies for cooperation or investment,” Paz said.
She said that although real estate may bean “old industry,” this market is just as large as that of the newer sector of cybersecurity.
“Therefore, the opportunity is huge for both Israeli entrepreneurs and investors,” she said.
Here’s a look at Israeli prop-tech firms.
Bllink founder Omri Peled (Courtesy of Bllink)
Bllink
Founder Omri Peled started Bllink following an embarrassing episode: As a young student working full time, he had fallen into arrears on his monthly upkeep fee to his apartment house’s building committee. The committee hung a sign at the front door intended to shame him in front of the other tenants.
Peled, who happened to be in high-tech, developed a digital solution that allows tenants and building committees to execute, manage and track all building payments automatically.
Bllink’s product is used in 35 cities across Israel. It has attracted prominent investors such as senior Wix executives Avishai Abrahami, Nir Zohar, Giora Kaplan, Lior Shemesh and Eyal Veitzman, in addition to Flashpoint VC and Altair Capital.
Starting next year, Bllink plans to expand into Europe, where it will focus more on processing rent payments.
Boaz Leviatan had a finance professor at IDC Herzliya who owned family properties in the United States. Seeking to buy additional properties, he applied for a mortgage at his American bank but was turned down because he had no credit score in the U.S. His mortgage application to his Israeli bank also was rejected since they couldn’t evaluate the proposed U.S. property.
Leviatan and three friends — Yair Benyamini, Erez Dricker and Tim Mironov — founded Lendai to enable overseas customers to secure mortgages on U.S. properties.
Its proprietary technology determines the present and future value and cash flow of the property; the likelihood of recouping lost capital via the property if the borrower defaults on the loan; and the creditworthiness of the foreign investor.
“We started with Israelis wanting to purchase in Georgia. By the end of the year we’ll be working in 12 states,” Benyamini said. “Canadians comprise our biggest market, and we also work with Brits and Australians.”
Benyamini is moving to Florida to open Lendai’s U.S. headquarters. The R&D, he said, will always remain in Israel.
Yael Tamar, co-CEO and co-founder of SolidBlock (Romy Engel)
SolidBlock
A portfolio company of Israeli prop-tech investment fund BuiltUp Ventures, SolidBlock offers a platform for transforming real estate into digital shares that can be traded.
For investors, tokenization provides control over when to invest in a project and the ability to trade and liquidate on demand. For property owners, it provides an efficient way to raise capital from a broader pool of potential investors.
Recently, the Jerusalem-based SolidBlock teamed with Blue Horizon Developments to tokenize The Beachfront Hotel in Phuket, becoming the first real-estate project to raise money on the blockchain in Thailand.
Localize.city
Localize.city built a novel engine that extracts helpful insights about any New York City address from thousands of datasets, using artificial intelligence to help potential buyers and renters make more informed decisions about a property’s advantages and drawbacks.
The website searches any address in New York City’s five boroughs. Conclusions are presented instantaneously in the form of up to 30 succinctly worded insights regarding the neighborhood’s prices, transportation, livability, community and potential nuisances.
Qbiq
When artificial intelligence meets architecture, you get Qbiq.
Founded in 2018 by Leeor Solnik, Noam Diamantstein and Elad Kaminer, Qbiq gives real-estate developers, brokers and architects an automated data-driven layout plan optimized for utilization, costs, build time, efficiency and additional factors.
The Qbiq platform includes smart assessment tools, comparisons and 3D visualization to test concepts, close transactions faster and improve engagement and deal conversion rates. It also provides automatic validation of architectural plans against local regulations, compliance, building constraints and company standards.
Lendlord
Via its website and mobile app, Lendlord provides property owners with ongoing metrics on portfolio health, historical growth trends, suggestions on potential savings on mortgage costs, upcoming due dates, and more.
In addition, Lendlord offers custom loans to finance new business or refinance existing loans. The platform currently manages around 12,000 properties worth approximately $4 billion.
Jones co-founders Michael Rudman and Omri Stern (Courtesy of Jones)
Jones
Jones founders Michael Rudman and Omri Stern spent years providing services in commercial real estate. They discovered that strict insurance requirements make it difficult for vendors to be compliant across all properties.
So, in 2017 they decided to simplify risk and compliance for commercial property managers using software and artificial intelligence. The process of vendor approval is cut from the usual 12 days to 2.5 days, with reported 99.9 percent accuracy.
The company’s compliance data platform also serves as a trusted vendor marketplace.
Jones won the Real Estate Tech Award for 2020 in the insurance category. Customers include large U.S. real estate firms such as Lincoln Property Co., Prologis, DivcoWest, Rudin Management, Sage Realty and JLL.
FlipOS
A product of the Tel Aviv-based Stoa Fund, FlipOS is targeted at American real-estate investors who buy assets with the intention to renovate them and resell (“flip”) them at a profit.
The service provides online tools to accomplish fix-and-flip deals faster and more securely. This includes upfront cash offers, low-cost loans and inspections. For now, FlipOS is available in select counties in Arizona and Florida.
Zorba
Or Preiss co-founded an esports gaming site. His older brother, Itai, does fix-and-flips in the U.S. real-estate market. Zorba is what happened when they joined forces with Kobi Mantzur, formerly a developer for MyHeritage and Isracard.
Zorba is a social marketplace that streamlines off-market deals between real estate wholesalers and vetted cash buyers.
“We saw a huge opportunity to use my knowledge from the past decade to standardize this market to make it better for both sides,” Preiss said.
“Buyers get access to under-the-radar deals. They can schedule a walkthrough from the app and make an offer through the app, giving them an advantage over other buyers. Wholesalers can help homeowners sell fast for cash in difficult situations, like probate or divorce. We help them sort out all the issues.”
Home365 founder and CEO Daniel Shaked (Courtesy of Home365)
Home365
Founded in 2016, Home365 is a fast-growing hybrid of prop-tech and insur-tech. Its machine-learning underwriting engine predicts maintenance, repairs and various resident-related events, guaranteeing small and medium-sized property owners a fixed monthly return on investment.
“Being focused on delivering passive and predictable financial results, Home365 invented a new asset class that transforms the risky nature of being a real estate investor into an all-accessible ‘savings account’ experience,” said Daniel Shaked, Home365’s founder and CEO.
With its recent acquisition of U.S.-based SlateHouse Property Management and Realty, and its closing of a $16.3 million funding round led by Greensoil PropTech Ventures II, Home365 now manages 7,000 units across six states with a total value of some $1 billion. A new 40-agent realty division facilitates the buying and selling of investment properties across many different regions, using the company’s proprietary evaluation tools.
NAIROBI, Kenya — Faith Murunga, a 30-year-old domestic worker living in Kwa Ndege area in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, left the country on Christmas Day of 2019 for what she hoped would be greener pastures in Saudi Arabia.
Although she had a small business in Nairobi, which brought her $183.96 monthly profit, she looked forward to making much more in the Middle Eastern country and give her children a better life.
However, it wasn’t long before her dream of a brighter future turned into a nightmare due to the harshness and cruelty of her new employer, Raeed Ayan Qeran Al Naz, in Saudi Arabia’s Arar city.
“You will come back from Saudi Arabia either disabled, dead, or mentally ill,” she told Zenger News.
“I went through a harrowing ordeal from the first day of my arrival. I was allowed to sleep for only four hours at night and given nothing more than noodles to eat. Sometimes they denied me food. I even contemplated suicide.”
Faith went to Saudi Arabia as a domestic worker, but her employer—a caterer— forced her to do catering which was not in her contract.
“The day after I arrived, they forced me to carry eight gas cylinders weighing more than 15 kilograms [33 pounds] from the first to the third floor. I was once beaten thrice in a day, and my hand scalded despite being sick. My only mistake was taking a nap after working for 19 hours.”
After more than a year of abuse, friends formed a WhatApp group and fundraised Sh14,000 [$127] for her return to Kenya in May 2021. A good Samaritan from the United States, Nelson Muthama, chipped in to purchase the air ticket.
After more than a year of abuse, Faith Murunga was able to raise money for a return trip to Kenya. (Courtesy of Faith Murunga)
Driven by lack of employment at home, and high demand for migrant labor in the Gulf, thousands of Kenyans leave each year searching for better opportunities in the Middle East.
Hundreds of them end up in lowly-paying jobs, such as domestic workers, eking a living in slave-like conditions in the region.
Recruiting agencies across Kenya, such as Alsaiar Travel, Tours and Recruitment Limited, an agency based at Uganda House, Nairobi’s central business district, facilitate the movement of the jobseekers to the Gulf for a fee.
Several stranded victims accuse such agencies of abandoning them in their time of need.
A 2019 report by the parliamentary committee on labor and social welfare said close to 55,000 Kenyans are working in Saudi Arabia. However, Labor and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Simon Kiprono Chelugui recently told the local media that the number has risen to 97,000.
Selestine Musavakwa, a 28-year-old mother of two, arrived in the desert kingdom the same day as Faith to work as a domestic worker.
But, unlike Faith, initially, her employer, an elderly couple whom she didn’t want to disclose their names, were courteous and understanding—at least for the first two months.
As days progressed into months, her employer confiscated her passport, delayed her wages, and eventually forced her to work for free.
“The children and the woman of the house were good to me, but the husband was violent,” she told Zenger News.
“I gave in to his sexual advances. My agency—Alsaiar Travel, Tours and Recruitment Limited—did not help me. I told them to take me to another house, but they refused. I became depressed. I would bury my head into the freezer to suppress my anguish because what I was doing was a sin.”
She ran away in September 2020 after getting wind that the man of the house planned to abuse and kill her with the help of his male relatives during a family event.
Her agency finally found her another employer, but the abuse was unrelenting.
“They poisoned me fearing I would reveal that their son—a security officer—tried to rape me.”
Eventually, the Saudi police connected her with her employment agency, which detained her demanding $2,757.52 for breach of contract. Her employers confiscated most of her documents.
Officials from the agency declined to comment on these allegations when Zenger News visited them at their Nairobi office.
Musavakwa and 18 other Ugandan girls eventually ran away from the detention center of their agency. She shared her story on social media, and a good Samaritan paid for her air ticket back to Kenya in February 2021.
“Currently, I survive on well-wishers. The poison I ingested damaged my liver, and now I can’t work and can’t afford medication,” she told Zenger News.
Chelugui acknowledged the challenges Kenyans face while seeking livelihoods in the Middle East.
“I want to assure any Kenyan working locally or abroad that their lives are important,” he told local media in August.
“I believe the future is bright, and we assure these ladies of their safety and comfort in Saudi Arabia.”
He said 97 Kenyans had died so far, while over 200 are on deportation or transit back home for different reasons.
“Some have run away from their previous contracts, and they have been reported to the authorities.”
He said he would visit Saudi Arabia on a fact-finding mission.
Stranded victims of abuse said the Kenyan embassy in Saudi Arabia is doing little to help them, but Chelugui assured them that the government would get them back home. The embassy did not respond to several emailed requests for comment.
However, Faith says the government’s measures would not change the “deep-rooted racism” and abuse of foreign domestic workers across the Middle East.
“The policies and measures the Kenyan and Saudi governments are discussing are just high-sounding policies. They are not helping the domestic workers on the ground. They tell us they bought us and can do anything they wish us. They call us slaves.”
On any given day in 2016—the latest study on the topic—an estimated 520,000 men, women, and children were living in modern slavery in the Arab States, according to the Global Slavery Index.
For years, local and international media have carried tales of woe from Kenyans suffering abuse in the Middle East. However, this has not deterred many from risking their lives in a desperate attempt to send much-needed salaries back home.
Kajiado County Governor Joseph Ole Lenku had to travel to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in August 2021 to rescue a Kenyan girl stuck in the country for eight months after her employer confiscated her travel documents.
The Kenyan government introduced new rules in 2019 to regulate the operations of recruitment agencies and make it safer for its domestic workers in the Gulf.
One of the rules requires the agencies to help women who fall into the hands of abusive employers to leave, with the rescue cost coming out of a Sh1.5 million [$13,623] bond that the agent has to pay to operate.
Paul Adhoch, the executive director of Trace Kenya, a counter-trafficking organization, blamed the return of bogus recruitment agencies for increased cases of trafficked Kenyan domestic workers.
“Then-Vice President Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka advocated in 2012 for the closure of rogue recruitment agencies and banning Kenyans from traveling to Saudi Arabia,” he told Zenger News.
“However, unscrupulous agencies are back. They do not conduct proper training for these workers on what to expect in the Gulf. Some of these agencies take shortcuts, such as giving them fake visas, meaning they’ll have problems getting back home.”
So far, in 2021, his organization has helped 50 returnees from Saudi Arabia whose employers withheld their salaries.
He also said the Kafala system practiced in the Gulf countries—whereby employers sponsor foreign workers, thus giving them undue power—leaves migrant workers susceptible to exploitation and abuse.
Although the Kenyan government negotiated an agreement with Saudi Arabia to enforce a minimum monthly wage of Sh40,000 [$363], its pending full implementation, Adhoch said.
“Kenyans are paid $211.40 while the Philippinos and Ethiopians are paid $643.40 yet, they live and work in the same homes. They [Kenyans] feel demotivated.”
A large female grizzly bear known as Patty is planning ahead.
She is busy building her den as she readies to hibernate during the upcoming Alaskan winter. Her activities were captured on video and shared by the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.
“Patty prepares her den!,” the center’s caption for the footage says. “Every year, our bears choose a suitable spot for their den inside their vast AWCC habitat. Most of the time, all three of our brown bears — Patty, JB and Hugo — share their winter bed together.”
Patron — affectionately known as Patty — is a rescue bear. She now lives at the conservation center, about 50 miles from Anchorage.
“We often get asked if our bears dig their own dens,” said center spokesperson Nicole Geilsa. “While our black bears have dens we’ve made for them, our brown bears love to make their own. In the wild, brown bears typically dig new dens every year.”
The bears make their den entrances just large enough for them to squeeze through, so it will cover quickly with insulating snow, Geilsa said. The chamber is dug only slightly larger than the bear’s body to allow for maximum heat retention.
“While asleep in their dens, their heart rate, respiration and body temperature drop, but brain activity continues in bears throughout the winter, and they can be easily woken up,” she said. “Instead of true hibernation, a bear’s winter rest is actually called ‘torpor.’”
Patty pulls grasses into the den she’s using for her winter bed in the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. (Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center/Zenger)
The center takes in orphaned and injured animals and provides them with a home for the rest of their lives. Geilsa said the sanctuary maintains over 200 acres of land, so the animals can behave as they would in the wild.
That’s important because the animals also act as “education ambassadors” for their species, with visitors seeing “brown bears swimming, moose strutting, wood bison roaming, muskox playing, wolves posing, porcupines climbing and more,” she said.
The animal sanctuary explained that Patty, who is JB’s sibling, lost her mother when she was still a cub. A local man shot the mother after she killed a moose calf in his backyard and feared the bear might attack his dog. He did not realize she had two cubs.
When he discovered Patty and JB hiding in a treetop, he called a local wildlife biologist, who retrieve them. The cubs were handed over to the animal sanctuary in 2004.
Grizzly bears usually hibernate for five to seven months every year, starting in October and emerging in March or April with the arrival of spring. (The coldest overnights in the Anchorage area usually occur in January, when the averages low is 9 degrees Fahrenheit.) But with climate change, they are increasingly emerging from their torpor in January and February, which can be problematic, as their food sources are often scarce at that time.
Grizzly bears in the contiguous United States are protected as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, with less than 1,500 left in the lower 48 states and about 31,000 in Alaska.
Congress may have narrowly avoided yet another shutdown of the United States government last week — but only by punting questions about the country’s solvency down the road, with the Treasury warning of a potential “catastrophic” default on debts.
With just hours to spare, the House and Senate passed a bill late Thursday to temporarily fund the government through Dec. 3, with legislation signed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. It extends federal agencies’ current spending rates and provides $28.6 billion to address natural disasters like Hurricane Ida, $6.3 billion for resettlement assistance for Afghan refugees and $2.5 billion for the care and shelter of unaccompanied migrant children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
But the resolution did not include any language to raise or suspend the debt limit, keeping the United States on the brink of defaulting on its loans for the first time.
U.S. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and first lady Jill Biden return to the White House on Oct. 4 after spending the weekend in Delaware. Biden was scheduled to deliver remarks on Monday about the need for Congress to raise the debt ceiling to avoid a debt default. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The White House and Congress now have a few more weeks to negotiate deals on 12 appropriations bills for fiscal year 2022 — nine of which the House has passed.
“There’s so much more to do,” Biden said. “But the passage of this bill reminds us that bipartisan work is possible, and it gives us time to pass longer-term funding to keep our government running and delivering for the American people.”
The bill’s success followed a failed attempt earlier in the week to pass similar legislation, which contained a provision to suspend the debt limit. Republicans in the Senate blocked it, saying they would only support a short-term funding bill. After its passage, the Senate agreed to a motion to bring the House-passed debt ceiling measure — which would lift the borrowing limit until December 2022 — to the floor via a party-line, 50-43 vote with seven Republicans missing.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he would ask his chamber to consider the legislation next week, but it is expected to fail amid a GOP filibuster.
The standoff over the debt ceiling comes just days after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the department could run out of money as soon as Oct. 18, putting the U.S. in danger of a “catastrophic” sovereign debt default.
“If to finance those spending and tax decisions, it’s necessary to issue additional debt, I believe it’s very disruptive to put the president and myself, the Treasury secretary, in a situation where we might be unable to pay the bills that result from those past decisions,” Yellen said in a House committee hearing Thursday.
“I think it would be catastrophic for the economy and for individual families.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks at a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 30. (Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images)
Congress last agreed to suspend the debt limit in 2019 until July 31 of this year. The Treasury has since been using emergency measures to pay America’s bills. Increases to the debt limit have historically been through bipartisan votes, with Democrats and Republicans increasing the limit three times under President Donald J. Trump.
However, this time around, Republicans have opposed lifting the debt ceiling, pointing to a $3.5-trillion spending bill that Democrats are trying to pass through the budget-reconciliation process with no GOP votes. Republicans argue the Democrats should try to raise the limit through the same process, without GOP support.
“The conclusion to draw from this week is very clear — clumsy efforts at partisan jams do not work,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the floor on Thursday. “We’re able to fund the government today because the majority accepted reality. The same thing will need to happen on the debt limit next week.”
Democrats have countered that the GOP should shoulder the political responsibility for a debt-limit suspension, and have accused their counterparts of letting partisan fighting jeopardize the U.S. economy. They say the reconciliation process would be too time-consuming and complex to address the $28.8-trillion national debt.
“Republicans need to get out of the way, so Senate Democrats can address the issue quickly and without needlessly endangering the stability of our economy,” Schumer said.
Flanked by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) holds up a visual aid to demonstrate the cost of the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 28. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Some, though, remain hopeful, since the parties “agree that we should not default.”
“Republicans certainly haven’t said that they support defaulting on our debt. In fact, they’ve come out and said quite the opposite,” Rachel Snyderman, associate director for economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told Zenger. “Right now, it’s not that Republicans … have been against raising the debt limit. … It’s that both parties want to discuss different policy options when it comes to addressing the debt limit.”
“The issue, of course, is the reconciliation bill that Democrats have on the table, and that’s why Republicans don’t want to support raising the debt limit,” she said.
“But it’s important to look at the debt limit as a way to finance our past obligations — all the bills that have come due and the accumulation of tax and spending priorities through all past administrations, Republican and Democrat alike.”
As the Thursday votes and negotiations carried late into the night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she would also delay her chamber’s scheduled vote on the $1.2-trillion Senate-passed infrastructure bill amid a rebellion within her party.
House members returned on Friday to continue pursuing a deal on the measure — and Biden also made a visit to the Capitol, as Democrats remained divided on the separate-but-linked $3.5-trillion spending bill, which funds what the Biden administration has deemed “human infrastructure.”
Some progressive members have vowed to vote against the $1.2-trillion infrastructure legislation unless a broader agreement on the $3.5-trillion spending bill is made with party moderates, some of whom want to lower its price tag.
“We’re on a path,” Pelosi said, promising the Democrat-controlled House would vote on the infrastructure bill by Oct. 31, giving lawmakers more time to reach a deal.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) speaks to the press from inside an elevator at the U.S. Capitol Sept. 28. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Thanks to slim majorities in the House and Senate, Democrats must remain virtually united to pass both the infrastructure and spending legislation. Some, like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), have proposed a spending bill price tag of $1.5 trillion — even as progressives have mostly refused to budge on the $3.5 trillion proposal.
Still, some progressives have indicated they may be willing to compromise.
“I accept that there’s going to have to be give and take,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) similarly noted there is room for negotiation.
“I’m a realist too,” he said. “Concessions will be made. And we’re certain of that.”
Seeing that more and more people are moving to Nashville, one of the common questions that arise is the question of housing. So, should you rent or should you buy in Nashville? Well, since this is a somewhat complicated subject, we’ve decided to use this article to explore it. It should give you a better idea of whether you should rent or buy in Nashville.
Should you rent, or should you buy in Nashville – what to consider?
If we want to answer this question correctly, we need to consider two aspects. First, you need to understand the pros and cons of both buying and renting. These will give you a good idea of what each decision brings and how it will impact your life. Secondly, you need to consider Nashville as a whole and what it, as a city, can provide. Once you combine these two aspects, you can come to a rational decision that stands to satisfy your housing needs. So, without further ado, let’s start tackling the first aspect.
The pros and cons of buying
On paper, owning a home sounds like a terrific idea. You get a piece of real estate that you can call your own and alter it as you see fit. No landlords, no rent dues… No worries, right? Well, the ownership of a home isn’t much of a problem. It is the process of buying one that is. For most people, buying a home is the most significant investment of their lives. Unless you are pretty well-off, you will need to get a loan from a bank to pay for a home. And seeing that an average home cost in Nashville is $362,443, that loan stands to be substantial.
Keep in mind that the current home values in Nashville have increased by 17.7% over the past year. (Photo by: Anthony Shkraba from Pexels).
If you plan on living in Nashville for the foreseeable future, then buying a home makes sense. But, what if you get a job opportunity in some other area, and you are stuck with your loan. You can try renting out your home. But that comes with its own set of difficulties. In this scenario, it would be much easier to relocate if you were renting.
Cost of ownership
Apart from buying a home, you will also have to invest in repairing and maintaining it. Not all homes are sold in prime condition, as some require structural improvements for proper use. Reroofing a home or changing the flooring will require you to look for contractors and find a budget to cover the expenses. And these project can be pretty costly, even if you can find cost-effective professionals to help you. And finding them is something you ought to do as soon as possible, as maintenance will be an ongoing task for you as a homeowner.
Besides these extra costs, you need to be aware of taxes. In Nashville, the residential property tax is 25% of the appraised value. Therefore, know that buying a home and owning a home aren’t the same financial concepts. To sum things up:
Pros:
Not having to deal with landlords.
Not having to pay rents.
Long-term financial benefit.
A feeling of freedom and coziness.
Cons:
High investment.
Cost of taxes and maintenance.
Not being able to quickly relocate out of Nashville.
The pros and cons of renting
The main benefit of renting is that you have the freedom to leave whenever you want. You have loan payments to worry about or residential home taxes to take care of. If you think that moving to Nashville was a bad idea, you can simply pack up your things and relocate. This type of freedom can be quite valuable for job hunting, as you are not tied down. Furthermore, if you grow dissatisfied with your current neighborhood, you can quickly leave it. So, all things considered, you avoid a lot of long-term stress, and you don’t have to worry about job availability or local changes.
Try to keep relocation in mind when you begin pondering the question: Should you rent or should you buy in Nashville. (Photo by: Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels).
Landlords and rent
On the other hand, you will have to deal with landlords and rent payments. In general, landlords tend to be decent people. Their main goal is to get as much rent money from you while investing as little time and energy into their real estate as possible. Understand that, and you will know how to deal with pretty much any landlord. Some landlords will give you the freedom to alter your apartment as you see fit. But most will put strict rules to abide by, especially if you have difficult neighbors.
Unfortunately, no matter how good your landlord is, you will have to pay rent each month. In the case of Nashville, this means paying $1,581 on average. So, if you spend two years living here, you will give $37,944 in rent. Once you do these long-term calculations, you’ll see that renting isn’t as cheap as it’s cracked out to be. Sure, you don’t need to have a considerable upfront investment. But, in the long run, you can end up spending quite a bit. So, to sum up:
Pros:
Freedom to relocate whenever you want.
Freedom to pursue your dream job, regardless of relocation.
No need for a substantial upfront investment.
Cons:
Dealing with landlords.
The accumulated money you spend on rent.
Limited freedom to alter your living space.
Living in Nashville
So, what is the final verdict? Should you rent or should you buy in Nashville? To reach the verdict, you need to understand what living here is like. Namely, Nashville can be an excellent place for both professionals and growing families. Modern Nashville home buyers are both young people and family people. It all depends on whether you plan on staying here permanently or whether Nashville is just a temporary stop.
When considering your life in Nashville, try to focus on a single neighborhood. (Photo by: Shane Raynor from Pexels).
An important aspect to consider is the neighborhoods, as they can greatly impact your quality of life. For instance, neighborhoods like Belmont-Hillsboro or Buena Vista are ideally suited for families. In contrast, the Gulch and Downtown are more suited for young, single professionals. Consider your lifestyle, and consider what your neighborhood has to offer. By doing so, you will easily determine whether you plan on permanently living there. And therefore, the answer to the “should you rent or should you buy in Nashville” question will become clear.
About the writer:
Justin Chandler worked as a real estate agent and a moving coordinator for over 20 years. He now works as a consultant for Spyder Moving and creates helpful articles on topics of relocation, home purchasing, selling properties, and more.
Deontay Wilder will stop Tyson Fury in the first half of their third fight on Oct. 9, according to Wilder’s manager, Shelly Finkel.
Wilder will “conclusively” regain his WBC heavyweight title from Fury said Finkel, who considers “The Bronze Bomber” to be “on that level” with four other champions he’s guided — Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson and the Klitschko brothers, Wladimir and Vitali.
“I believe Deontay is going to knock him out in under six rounds,” said Finkel, 77. “There won’t be any reason for a fourth fight. I think you’re going to see a very dominant performance from Deontay, and I think he will end the fight conclusively, and then we can move on.”
The 6-foot-7 Wilder (42–1–1, 41 KOs) is facing the 6-foot-9 Fury (30–0–1, 21 KOs) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on ESPN+/Fox joint pay-per-view, having battled “The Gypsy King” to a draw in a December 2018 defense of his crown before being knocked out and dethroned via seventh-round TKO in their February 2020 rematch.
“In the last fight, Deontay got a little bit arrogant, thought he could just do this or that, and he’s learned from it,” Finkel said. “He’s told me that it may be among the greatest experiences he’s ever had and needed. I think Deontay is going to knock out Tyson Fury within the first six rounds.”
Wilder dropped Fury once each in the ninth and 12th rounds of their first fight, but was floored himself in the third and fifth rounds of his loss to Fury.
“Tyson is working on putting more power in the right hand and actually in both hands,” Fury’s trainer, Javan “Sugar” Hill-Steward, said exclusively to Zenger on Thursday.
“It’s to the point where he’s become a fighter who has one-punch knockout power. The first fight went 12 rounds, and the second fight went seven, so I want to start this fight like it’s round No. 20.”
Deontay Wilder (left) “was losing big-time” to Luis Ortiz in their rematch in November 2019 “but he knocked him out,” said Wilder’s manager, Shelly Finkel. “When that happens, you can have the puncher’s curse. You feel like you can always bail it out. But Deontay has not cut corners” for his third bout with Tyson Fury on Oct. 9. (Premier Boxing Champions)
Finkel said Wilder has learned from mistakes made against Fury as well as in his pair of victories over Cuban southpaw Luis Ortiz, whom he led by one point en route to a two-knockdown, 10th-round TKO in March 2018.
Wilder was losing to Ortiz during his come-from-behind one-knockdown, seventh-round knockout in November 2019.
“Before the loss, he was able to do whatever he wanted to do. In the second Ortiz fight, for example, if he didn’t knock him out, he was losing, big-time. But he knocked him out, and when that happens, you can have the puncher’s curse. You feel like you can always bail it out,” Finkel said.
“In some ways, I feel that Deontay had developed the puncher’s curse in that he singularly depended on his punches. Like Deontay used to say: They need 12 rounds, I need two seconds. So then you start to depend on that, and you start to cut corners. But Deontay has not cut corners this time.”
Wilder’s new trainer, Malik Scott, said “The Bronze Bomber” has improved his “speed, strength and physicality on the inside,” and will stop Fury “inside five rounds,” or “can win a 12-round decision.”
“Deontay is not going to be bullied or pushed around like he was in the last fight,” Finkel said. “I believe that Deontay knows what he’s got to do to control this fight. You’re talking about a fighter who is 6-foot-7, and he’s like a big Tommy Hearns.”
“Deontay is a much different fighter. Much heavier, and he has trained much harder,” Finkel added. “His bench-pressing has improved to around 350 pounds. Deontay is going to surprise people with his physique and how solid he looks. If Deontay can’t beat Tyson Fury this time, then it’s just that he can’t beat Fury.”
Deontay Wilder retained his WBC heavyweight title with a draw against Tyson Fury in December 2018, was bloodied and dethroned via seventh-round TKO in February 2020 and has a third bout with “The Gypsy King” on Oct. 9. “Deontay is not going to be bullied … like he was in the last fight,” said Wilder’s manager Shelly Finkel. (Premier Boxing Champions)
Wilder, who bled from his left ear during the rematch, at one point stated that Fury had cheated by adjusting and manipulating his gloves to the point where his fingernails were exposed enough to cut him.
“Everyone knows what it is about the gloves,” Wilder exclusively told Zenger, regarding videos that were circulated on social media and Youtube.com. “We’re going to make sure nothing like that happens in this next fight.”
Said Finkel: “There was doubt about the gloves and [Fury] doing things, but we’ll be more careful than we were before, and I don’t think that will matter in this fight.”
Fury retorted during a virtual press conference on Wednesday in Las Vegas.
“I don’t really make much of the excuses that were flying around for so long. I think they just made him a weaker character and less of a man and less of a fighter because when you get beat, you get beat,” Fury said.
“I hope he brings a better fight because [our] last fight was disappointing, to say the least. I trained for an absolute war, and it was a one-sided beatdown, so hopefully he can give me a challenge.”
Twice named Manager Of The Year by The Boxing Writers Association Of America, Finkel said Wilder looks “better than I’ve seen in the 14 years I’ve been associated with him,” comparing him favorably with four-time heavyweight champion Holyfield, 58, former champion Tyson, 55, and the former champion Klitschko siblings, Wladimir, 45, and Vitali, 50, who reigned simultaneously for two years, five months and 13 days between 2008 and 2012.
“Deontay is on that level in terms of size, strength and power, and he’s actually learning more now that he’s lost,” Finkel said. “In the 14 years or so that I’ve been with Deontay Wilder, I’ve never seen him train like this. He’s the best I’ve ever seen him to be, physically and mentally.”
