Daily Archives: August 10, 2020

African states are critical in advancing ocean governance – The Patriotic Vanguard

Posted: August 10, 2020 at 4:44 pm

By Lewis Kihumba, BirdLife-Africa, Nairobi, Kenya

High Seas or Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) - outside of states jurisdictions, cover more than 50% of the Earths surface and provide critical ecosystem services to humanity. These areas are increasingly under threat from human activities including land-based activities, fishing, and emerging deep-sea mining leading to pollution and disturbance to species and habitats. There exists strong ecological connectivity between Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction and national waters. Simply put, the ocean knows no political boundaries and ecological impacts are felt across borders.

The United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) governs the rights and duties of states in maritime zones. Additionally, ocean governance takes the form of sectoral initiatives in various sectors including fisheries and shipping. There are also a number of regional initiatives concerned with ocean governance. However, the governance of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction is fragmented and complex. In 2015, the United Nations (UN) passed Resolution 69/292, which began negotiations on a treaty on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity. In 2018, the negotiations were formally launched, focussing on four main elements namely: Marine Genetic Resources, including questions on benefit sharing, Environment Impact Assessments, Area based Management Tools, including Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and Capacity building and marine technology transfer.

The Abidjan Convention, ratified in 1984, is one of Africas established organisations active in ocean governance on the continent. The Convention covers a geographical area of 22 countries on the Atlantic seaboard and provides a framework for the protection of marine and coastal environment in the region. The STRONG High Seas initiative which the Abidjan Convention is a partner, provides a platform and facilitates dialogue among Member States on issues around Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) and the treaty currently being negotiated.

African States face a number of challenges, including limited mandates to address BBNJ issues, limited cross-sectoral co-operation, uneven participation in negotiations around international agreements and diverse cultures and languages. Consequently, a Working Group, with representation from the Abidjan Conventions member States, was constituted to explore areas of mutual interest, for co-operation and opportunities for joint programmes and a coordinated approach to ocean protection and governance in the region. This Working Group has had a number of meetings with the latest one in July 2020, as preparations gather pace for the Abidjan Convention 13th Conference of Parties (COP) to be held in April 2021. STRONG High Seas is working with the Abidjan Convention Working Group to produce research and to hold workshops to build awareness of the importance of BBNJ in the region and support decision-making processes in this topic.

The project also seeks to improve the participation of African States in the negotiations taking place around a binding treaty for BBNJ. Ocean governance should be informed by robust scientific information. To this end, the STRONG High Seas has developed an ecological baseline study highlighting the status of marine biodiversity in the South East Atlantic, which is critical for key decision makers in the region. Additionally, STRONG High Seas has started a study looking at the socio-economic connections between Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, and national waters and the relation of these socio-economic activities with marine biodiversity. Linking these efforts in the West, Central and Southern Africa, with other initiatives around the world, will provide the momentum needed to achieve effective and meaningful ocean governance for Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction. Ultimately, as the conversation on conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity continues, African states will be instrumental in the realization of an inclusive ocean governance framework.

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African states are critical in advancing ocean governance - The Patriotic Vanguard

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No end to South China Sea disputes without code of conduct – The Star Online

Posted: at 4:44 pm

A series of events, ranging from social unrest in the United States, Hong Kong and much of Europe to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has infected more than 18 million people and killed nearly 700,000 of them, should prove that 2020 has so far been a very difficult year to navigate.

The South China Sea has not been spared the nail-biting tension of 2020. As claimant states are preoccupied with efforts to fight the pandemic, numerous worrying incidents have occurred within the maritime territory, exacerbating the animosity among the states. The presence of external actors has added strain to the geopolitical turmoil.

Violations of sovereign rights form one of the most pressing issues in the South China Sea. The biggest incident so far was the West Capella standoff after Malaysia started an oil and gas survey in late 2019 within the Malaysia-Vietnam Joint Defined Area.

The operation of the West Capella drillship prompted Beijing to dispatch several China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels to trail, and harass, the drillship and its supply vessels. Vietnam also scrambled some of its maritime militia into the area to observe the drillship.

Meanwhile, Malaysia doubled-down on its initial move by deploying the Royal Malaysian Navys KD Jebat, a 2,270-ton guided missile frigate, to protect the West Capellas operation. At one time the Malaysian warship forced a CCG vessel to stand down.

Beijing has simultaneously initiated a showdown with Malaysia at the Luconia Shoals, where CCG vessels maintain a near-constant presence off the coast of Sarawak. At the culmination of it all, China sent its survey vessel Haiyang Dizhi 8, along with a flotilla of coast guard and paramilitary vessels.

In response to the standoff, the US maintained a presence there for a month with an array of multi-day patrols involving the US Navy, and a flyby of US Air Force bombers. On top of that, the US conducted five Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea in the first half of the year to challenge the unilateral claims of China on the entirety of the South China Sea, and to maintain the act of innocent passage by any ships on the high seas and held a joint military exercise with Australia in April.

Another incident pitted China against the Philippines at Commodore Reef in February. It started when Philippine Navy corvette BRP Conrado Yap encountered a Peoples Liberation Army Navy corvette during a patrol mission in the area. As the Philippine Navy radioed the PLA Navy to continue to their next destination, the PLA Navy insisted that the Commodore Reef area was a sovereign territory of China. BRP Conrado Yap later identified that the PLA Navy had their weapons aimed toward the Philippine Navy.

This incident not only amounts to a violation of Philippines EEZ but also to the illegal use of threat in high seas, which is in direct breach of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, to which China is a party.

The rising tension caused a spillover effect on Indonesia, with CCG vessels constantly seen trespassing into Indonesias Exclusive Economic Zone from December 2019 to January 2020.

The turmoil has gone unabated when the negotiation of the Code of Conduct (CoC) in South China Sea has been put on hold, mostly because of the pandemic.

The talks on the CoC, however, have been subject to criticism in the first place. One American scholar commented that the current draft, passed in September 2019, had very little agreed upon. Some points are still very contentious, such as dispute settlement procedures, and fishing and seabed management. Meanwhile, a Singaporean scholar said that, as the negotiation was suspended, Beijing was consolidating its presence amid the Covid-19 outbreak. As ASEAN member states have their hands full in dealing with the pandemic, Beijing wants to raise its leverage in the negotiation when it restarts.

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is another source of disputes among claimant states in the South China Sea. A fleet of more than 300 Vietnamese fishing vessels ventured into Chinese waters around February 2020. Some vessels were identified to operate with their transponders switched off. Several Chinese analysts suggest that some vessels were there to spy on Chinese military facilities.

Several cases of illegal fishing were also identified venturing into Indonesian waters. An incident in March saw Indonesian authorities capture five Vietnamese fishing vessels and detain the 68 crew members. In the following month, two Vietnamese fishing vessels were seized in the North Natuna Sea.

There seems to be no indication that the situation in the South China Sea will simmer down anytime soon. With the US set to hold an election in November, President Donald Trump cannot afford to back down against Chinas assertive behaviour within the South China Sea.

This will encourage emboldened Southeast Asian claimant states to fight further aggression, as the Philippines has demonstrated in its decision to suspend termination of its Visiting Forces Agreement with the US.

It only shows that claimant states need support to stake their claims within the area.

With the CoC negotiation stagnating in these pressing times, there will be a lot clutter to clean up before any agreement could be pushed forward between the South China Sea littoral states. The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network

Gilang Kembara is a researcher at Department of International Relations, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Indonesia. The original article was published in CSIS Commentaries.

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No end to South China Sea disputes without code of conduct - The Star Online

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Detroit Experts: Secretary DeVos and President Trump Gambling With Lives of Students, Teachers, and Parents By Forcing School Reopenings – PRNewswire

Posted: at 4:44 pm

DETROIT, Aug. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Detroit experts heavily criticized U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and President Trump this week on a webinar hosted by the non-profit, Protect Our Public Schools (POPS). The webinar, "How Do We Safely Reopen Schools? Detroit Experts Weigh In," explored the current challenges and issues facing the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) with the start of the new school year roughly a month away.

"Given the level of prevalence of COVID in the community right now, opening the schools [means] there will inevitably be cases," said Dr. Eric Kessell, a lecturer at Wayne State University specializing in public health and epidemiology. "If the decision is made to reopen in person, it'll be important to have those plans well-developed and published and vetted within the community."

President Trump and Secretary DeVos are pushing to force all schools to reopen across the country without a safe planregardless of local infection rates. Secretary DeVos has done little to ensure public school districts have personal protective equipment, school nurses, adequate building space, proper HVAC systems, or the expertise to guide schools through this crisis.

"Betsy DeVos, as well as Trump, the puppet master, is playing games with the lives of people all over the country," said Michigan Representative for District 8, Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo. "You can't market your way into convincing parents that it's safe, or teachers that it's safe. There should be a rubric or some type of guideline to highlight checkoffs that show that the HVAC systems are up to date. If they're not new, that they are being serviced regularly."

President Trump and Secretary DeVos are pushing to force schools to reopen at a time when experts such as Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, are warning of increased and widespread COVID-19 transmission. Earlier this week, Dr. Birx said, "The epidemic right now is different, and it's more widespread and it's both rural and urban."

LaMar Lemmons, who served as President of the Detroit Board of Education and a former member of the Michigan House of Representatives, slammed the federal approach to reopening schools. "As the billionaire sports entertainment enterprise owners, and their millionaire players cannot protect themselves from COVIDif they're still continuously having outbreaks, how can we protect the least of [us] in the Detroit area," said Lemmons.

Parents, teachers, administrators and public school advocates have pointed to under-investment in education by the Trump Administration as an issue impacting public schools across the country. Out of the roughly $2.2 trillion in the CARES Act, only $13.5 billion of that went to K-12 public schools, or less than one percent.

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is currently being sued by a coalition of attorneys general, including Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, for unlawfully diverting CARES Act dollars to wealthy, private schools.

"If the President's son's school is not opening, I don't understand why Betsy DeVos is sending money that should be for COVID protection to private schools that are going to do virtual learning," said Dr. Jimmy Womack, a retired physician and former President of the Detroit Board of Education. "What are they doing with that money?"

About Protect Our Public Schools

Protect Our Public Schools (POPS)is a community of teachers, retired educators, students, parents, and citizens who are dedicated to protecting our public schools. Protect Our Public Schools operates as a section 501(c)(4) tax exempt organization.

SOURCE Protect Our Public Schools

https://protectourpublicschools.org

Detroit Experts: Secretary DeVos and President Trump Gambling With Lives of Students, Teachers, and Parents By Forcing School Reopenings - PRNewswire

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Michigan’s Sports Betting and Online Gambling To Bring $650M In First-Year Revenue, According to MichiganSharp.com – European Gaming Industry News

Posted: at 4:44 pm

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Welcome to our weekly roundup of American gambling news again! It was again an eventful week in the USA, despite the still-active virus attack.

Here, we are going through the weekly highlights of the American gambling industry which include the latest news, new partnerships and new appointments. Read on and get updated.

Sungai Buloh police deny allegations of inaction over illegal gambling activities – The Star Online

Posted: at 4:44 pm

SUNGAI BULOH: Police have denied allegations of inaction over illegal gambling activities in the district.

This is in response to viral videos by "Hot Burger Malaysia" which was shared by Facebook user Asri Janggut on Saturday (Aug 8), claiming that police were in cahoots with illegal gambling syndicates.

Sungai Buloh OCPD Supt Shafa'aton Abu Bakar described the allegations made by the Facebook user as untrue and inaccurate.

"Two police reports have been lodged by the Sungai Buloh police station chief and an officer from the Shah Alam City Council (MBSA).

"His allegations could tarnish the image of the police force, especially that of the Selangor police in our efforts to curb illegal gambling in the state especially in Sungai Buloh," she told a press conference on Sunday (Aug 9).

She added that the police are investigating the matter and will call up the man who made the allegations.

"We will record his statement soon," she added

On Saturday, police also conducted six raids, resulting in the arrests of two Bangladeshi men, she added.

"The premises were not the ones highlighted by the Facebook user.

"We discovered the ones he alleged as illegal gambling dens were not in operation," Supt Shafa'aton said.

She also urged the public to come forward with any information on criminal activities but not in the manner that the Facebook user had done.

"Members of the public can also come and meet with me or my officers on any criminal incidents and activities

"We hope for the strong cooperation from people to combat crime," she said.

She also denied allegations made by the same Facebook user that the police report was leaked to the syndicates.

"Any information given to the police will be safeguarded.

"We never close one eye to criminal activities let alone be in cahoots with them," she said.

The Facebook Live videos, which went viral on Saturday had received more than three million views.

The Facebook user claimed that the police were in cahoots with illegal gambling syndicates while the smuggling of contraband cigarettes were also rampant.

He also complained of unfair actions of the MBSA in seizing his burger stalls

Police also conducted a total of 11 raids on illegal gambling dens in Sungai Buloh since early this year, Supt Shafa'aton said.

"The last of the raids were conducted two weeks prior to the videos going viral.

"The 11 raids resulted in the arrests of 10 caretakers and 13 players.

We also seized five laptops and 39 tablets during the operations," she added.

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Sungai Buloh police deny allegations of inaction over illegal gambling activities - The Star Online

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Pokie Gambling In New Zealand Pubs And Clubs Costing Retail Sector Over $400 Million A Year – Scoop.co.nz

Posted: at 4:44 pm

Monday, 10 August 2020, 4:57 pmPress Release: Problem Gambling Foundation

A recent New Zealand Institute of Economic Research(NZIER) report commissioned by The Salvation Army and theProblem Gambling Foundation estimates that if householdexpenditure on Class 4 pokie gambling was diverted to otheruses, the retail sector could have gained an estimated $445million in 2018/19.

Paula Snowden, Problem GamblingFoundation CEO, says the report highlights the surprisingextent of the drain on the retail sector from gambling onpokies in pubs, clubs and TABs.

With the retail andhospitality sector still hurting from the COVID-19 lockdown,it is time to acknowledge that Class 4 gambling not only hasa significant social cost, but it is also a drain on thewider economy, she says.

NZIER analysis suggeststhat the increased retail sales would generate an additional1,127 full-time equivalent jobs for 1,724 workers, worthapproximately $50 million in wages and salaries. These jobswould be in the food and beverage services, specialised foodretailing, supermarkets and grocery stores.

Withlosses on pokie machines trending upwards year by year, thisreport shows how the economy could benefit from divertingthose gambling losses into spending elsewhere in localcommunities, Ms Snowden says.

Lynette Hutson,National Director, The Salvation Army Addiction Services,says community groups are struggling with the ethics ofbeing forced to rely on pokie money.

Communitiesand community sport are desperate for funding yet rely ongrants from a mere 40 percent of the $939 million lost onpokies in pubs, clubs and TABs in 2019.

If thosetotal losses were spent in local economies, business coulddirectly support their own community interests without theheavy toll being borne by the most deprived communities inNew Zealand, Ms Hutson says.

Jason Alexander,Interim CEO, Hpai Te Hauora Tapui, says Mori aredisproportionately impacted by gambling because 50 percentof the pokie machines are located in areas where Maori andPasifika people live.

We see the effect of gamblingon whnau and children, yet we are using money from pokiemachines to fund communities, with 60 percent of it goingtowards the cost of running the system. Mori have nocontrol on the density of these machines in theircommunities yet experience 2.5 times the rate of gamblingharm, he says.

The report suggests that additionalGST revenue is estimated to be $58.01 million and income taxcollected from additional retail sector workers is expectedto be between $7 million and $7.6 million.

PaulaSnowden says as a nation we need to start thinking aboutwhere the gambling losses that support our good causes areactually coming from.

It is encouraging that ifgambling losses were diverted into the retail and serviceindustries, there would be more employment, more tax andmore business revenue available to sponsor and supportcommunity interests and community sport, shesays.

The full report is attached.

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Pokie Gambling In New Zealand Pubs And Clubs Costing Retail Sector Over $400 Million A Year - Scoop.co.nz

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13 booked for gambling in Vejalpur; cash, other items worth Rs 1.22 lakh seized – Ahmedabad Mirror

Posted: at 4:44 pm

By Asik Banerjee

Incidents of gambling at homes in the city seem to be on the rise. Vejalpur police raided a house in Shrinandnagar-3 in the wee hours of Sunday and booked 13 persons for involvement in gambling activity.

This is for the second time in two days that such activities were reported at residences.

They immediately went and raided the house. They found seven persons, including Kayastha (32), engrossed in the game. Upon looking further, they found six other persons gambling in another room.

The cops booked all the 13 and seized Rs 1.22 lakh in cash and other items from them. Besides Kayastha, the others who were booked were identified as Varun Jadhav (36), resident of Parishar phase 2 in Khokhra, Mitesh Bhatt and Anirudh Vaghela (both 32) and Prakash Shrimali (36), residents of Vejalpur, Dhaval Patel (26) and Prerak Shah (33), residents of Shrinandnagar-3, Gota residents Virat Patel (25) and Vishal Patel (33), Paldi resident Saumil Shah (32), Makarba resident Akash Bharvad (24) and Nikul Bharvad (27) and Shrinandnagar-1 resident Ramsundar Yadav (45).

They were all booked under the Gambling Act.

Early on Friday, Bopal police had booked six persons found gambling at a house in Sun City in the South Bopal area of Ahmedabad.

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13 booked for gambling in Vejalpur; cash, other items worth Rs 1.22 lakh seized - Ahmedabad Mirror

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HBOs Lovecraft Country Thrives on Fear and Comments on Power – Observer

Posted: at 4:44 pm

Stories are like people, Jonathan Majors Atticus Tic Freeman says early on in the first episode of HBOs Lovecraft Country. Even when they arent perfect, you just try to cherish them and overlook their flaws. Yeah, but the flaws are still there, hes answered.

Point and counterpoint.

At a time when narratives centered on Black Americans feel more relevant and important than ever, Lovecraft Countrydebuting Sunday, August 16is distinctly displaced from time in a good way. In the five episodes provided to critics, the series careens through the past and present to collide head on with the future. At no point, however, are our most glaring flaws glossed over. Lovecraft Country is about the reclamation of power through the unearthing of buried truths.

Based on Matt Ruffs 2016 novel of the same name, Lovecraft Countryoverseen by showrunner Misha Green (Underground, Sons of Anarchy)is nominally about Atticus, his Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance), and his friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollet

) as they embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of Tics missing father (played by The Wires Michael K. Williams). But that public synopsis barely covers a fraction of the storys true scope and intention.

Its a family drama that asks what we are willing to do for our freedom while questioning what freedom truly means. All the while, this tale is draped in the trappings of supernatural horror. Eat your heart out, Stephen King.

Littered with literary references from H.P. Lovecraft and John Carter to Dracula and The Count of Monte Cristo, Lovecraft Country is an unabashed celebration of genre. The pilot, directed by White Boy Rick filmmaker Yann Demange, begins with a surreal fever dream of war where the battlefield is overtaken by UFOs, the cosmic entity Cthulhu and a baseball bat-swinging Jackie Robinson. Its all sorts of crazy weird that often feels like one of the old pulp serials our protagonist Tic loves to thumb through.

As a show partly inspired by Lovecrafts works, the series fittingly wrestles with racism and prejudice, an often-overlooked pockmark on the writers legacy. His deplorable views seep their ways into the shows surrounding characters and societal structures in both historically accurate and otherworldly ways.

Our sense of reality is composed entirely on assumptions, the show posits in its first episode. So what happens when those assumptions are proven to be false? When confronted with the impossible, how do we respond?

I thought the world was one way and then I find out it isnt and its terrifying, Smolletts fierce Letitia LetiLewis says in the third episode. But I wont live in fear.

Yet fear is what Lovecraft Country thrives on. Every exchange is coded in sub-text, every hint at danger stinging as more of a threat. White privilege of the era masks a secret society with an insatiable hunger to consume and control, which stands as a parallel to colonization and systematic racism throughout history. Lovecraft Country is packed with symbolism and metaphors to be decoded and deconstructed within the atmospheric world of terror Green has created.

The show features nods to 1980s adventure movies such as The Goonies, Cronenbergian body horror and classic 1930s monster movies. But while exciting and satisfying to die-hard genre fans, the series runs the risk of fragmenting itself too severely.

Early episodes cover the road trip from hell before giving way to a haunted house nightmare and then a horror-filled version of a National Treasure-like hunt for a mysterious MacGuffin. Serialized elements strewn across what can be considered somewhat self-contained stories. Individually, they hold the power to thrill, terrify, and entertain. But Im left wondering how, or if, these pieces can come together over the back half of the season, even as this quasi-episodic structure is the creature of design.

What drew me to adapting the book for TV, as opposed to film, was the chance to do a Goonies-style episode, then sci-fi, then mystery, then a ghost story; go bananas and reclaim all of those storytelling styles for characters whove typically died at the beginning of those stories, Green said in a recent interview.

While Lovecraft Country wastes no time delving into its specific brand of supernatural storytellingremember that gonzo opening scene?it could benefit from a touch of patience when doling out these genre elements. Sorcery, exorcisms, monsters and ghouls are introduced perhaps a bit too casually before racing to the next plot point. At times, its dizzying, especially when youre left feeling in need of a bit more explanation and background on key elements of this ambitious tale. It excitedly embraces what has become the dominant form of storytelling in mainstream entertainment, sometimes too overeagerly.

What helps to keep all the chaos controlledaside from standout performances from Majors and Smollettis a vibrant soundtrack that is nothing less than scintillating. Lovecraft Country is a full-sensory experience featuring a mix of 1950s era music, hip-hop, spoken word poetry, and found audio. Where else can you hear period appropriate crooning, voice over from the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson story, Ntozake Shanges 1975 poem For Colored Girls, Gil Scott-Herons poem Whitey on the Moon and Cardi B? Its musical metamorphosis with distinct cultural identity at its center.

Lovecraft Country looks to reclaim the genre space for creators and performers not typically invited to the party. In that way, it has echoes of Get Out, the feature directorial debut of Jordan Peele, who also happens to serve as an executive producer alongside J.J. Abrams. In doing so, it becomes a melting pot of creative influences, inspirations, and homages. A serialized pseudo-anthology playing the greatest genre hits of the last century.

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HBOs Lovecraft Country Thrives on Fear and Comments on Power - Observer

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Daily Archives: August 10, 2020

African states are critical in advancing ocean governance – The Patriotic Vanguard

No end to South China Sea disputes without code of conduct – The Star Online

Detroit Experts: Secretary DeVos and President Trump Gambling With Lives of Students, Teachers, and Parents By Forcing School Reopenings – PRNewswire

Michigan’s Sports Betting and Online Gambling To Bring $650M In First-Year Revenue, According to MichiganSharp.com – European Gaming Industry News

Sungai Buloh police deny allegations of inaction over illegal gambling activities – The Star Online

Pokie Gambling In New Zealand Pubs And Clubs Costing Retail Sector Over $400 Million A Year – Scoop.co.nz

13 booked for gambling in Vejalpur; cash, other items worth Rs 1.22 lakh seized – Ahmedabad Mirror

HBOs Lovecraft Country Thrives on Fear and Comments on Power – Observer

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