Latest news with #ROC
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
WHY ROC: What's new for Jazz Festival?
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — It's almost here! Nine days, nearly 300 concerts, and more than 1,700 artists from around the world are all coming here in one week for the return of the 22nd Rochester International Jazz Festival.' For this GRE WHY ROC segment, we had long-time organizer of the event Marc Iacona on Sunrise to share what's new and different this year, how to best plan your week at the shows, and what he says to people that might not put jazz at the top of their playlist. Watch the full interview in the player on this page. Check out our full festival guide here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
For a second year, roller skating is back at the ROC in St. Louis Park
For a second year, roller skating is back at the ROC in St. Louis Park originally appeared on Bring Me The News. Roller skating can evoke a sepia-tinted nostalgia, but it doesn't have to be that way. Rather, it can still be that way, but you can also roller skate this summer. Rollin' @ the ROC is back in St. Louis Park this summer, inviting the community to roller skate around the Recreation Outdoor Center (ROC) for a second straight year. The season opened in May and will continue through the season-ending open skate on Sept. 25. Each session takes place on a Thursday, frequently with the Twin Cities Skaters in attendance, offering either lessons or a performance. Those weeks, the Bite Me Baking Co. food truck will be around selling treats. "After seeing many roller skaters using the ROC during open times, especially after the loss of the Roller Garden, we realized this was an opportunity for our department to promote roller skating in our community and to fill a gap in our parks and recreation programming," says Heidi Batistich, recreation and facilities supervisor. It was in 2021 that the St. Louis Park Roller Garden closed after 52 years of offering space to skaters daily. Just a few years later, a $9,520 grant for sports equipment from Hennepin County has allowed St. Louis Park to offer a small amount of that magic to people who love roller skating. Eight of the nine open skates for the summer cost $5, and roller skate rental is included in the admission. The exception is a free Juneteenth skate on Thursday, June 19. The Twin Cities Skaters will have a DJ on hand and perform. The Ralph's Rib Crib food truck will be set up outside as well. The ROC is located at 3700 Monterey Drive, and the full list of open skates can be found at the city's story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jun 11, 2025, where it first appeared.
Time of India
03-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
2 held in Rs 24 cr investment fraud linked to online grocery app
1 2 Hyderabad: Hyderabad's central crime station (CCS) police have arrested two individuals in connection with a ₹24.3 crore investment fraud case, originally registered in April 2024. The prime accused, Mukesh Chowdhary, 33, founder of Urban Market, an online grocery application, and Amit Kumar Pilania, 31, a businessman from Pune who was initially the complainant in the case, were apprehended by CCS officials from Malakpet on May 30. According to the investigation, the accused collected large sums from multiple investors during 2023–24, falsely promising business returns through the Urban Market platform. Notably, Pilania—who had initially filed a complaint against Mukesh—was later found to be an active participant in the scheme. This revelation came after a thorough review of Registrar of Companies (ROC) filings and bank transaction records. In his original complaint, Pilania claimed to have known Mukesh for over 20 years and alleged that, at Mukesh's request, he invested more than ₹15 lakh in the business. He further accused Mukesh of operating the business in his name and continuously demanding additional funds. The case was first registered at Malakpet police station on March 18, 2024, under sections 417 (cheating), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. It was subsequently transferred to the CCS and re-registered on April 27, 2024, under the same sections. During the investigation, CCS officials found that Pilania was not just a victim but also complicit in defrauding investors. Several genuine victims later approached the police, reporting collective losses amounting to ₹24.3 crore from the fraudulent investment scheme associated with the Urban Market app. As a result, police also invoked section 5 of the Telangana Protection of Depositors of Financial Establishments Act, and arrested both accused from Malakpet. They were produced in court and remanded in judicial custody on May 31. The CCS continues to investigate the case to identify other victims and additional collaborators involved in the fraud.
UPI
01-06-2025
- Politics
- UPI
China responds after Hegseth warns to prepare for war
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth participates in an announcement by President Donald Trump about moving forward with the Golden Dome missile defense shield in the Oval Office of the White House on May 20, 2025. File photo by Chris Kleponis/UPI | License Photo June 1 (UPI) -- China criticized the United States on Sunday for having a "Cold War mentality" after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to warn that the U.S. is prepared to go to war to prevent China from dominating the Indo-Pacific region in a speech Saturday. "Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region, and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation, vilified China with defamatory allegations, and falsely called China a 'threat,'" a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "The remarks were filled with provocations and intended to sow discord. China deplores and firmly opposes them and has protested strongly to the U.S." Hegseth had delivered his remarks during the International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-La Dialogue event in Singapore. He said the Indo-Pacific region is the United States' "priority theater" and won't allow China to push it and its allies out of the region. China retorted Sunday that "no country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the U.S. itself." "To perpetuate its hegemony and advance the so-called 'Indo-Pacific strategy,' the U.S. has deployed offensive weaponry in the South China Sea and kept stoking flames and creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific, which are turning the region into a powder keg and making countries in the region deeply concerned," the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. Hegseth had also said that China was "preparing to use military force" to alter the balance of power in the region and appeared to indicate that the United States would step in to defend Taiwan if China were to attack it. Mainland China and the island of Taiwan, among other islands, were ruled by the Republic of China before the ROC lost the Chinese Civil War in the early 20th century to the Chinese Communist Party, which established the new government of the People's Republic of China in October 1949. The ROC in turn established a temporary capital in Taipei on the island of Taiwan, a former Japanese territory, in December 1949 that served as the seat for China at the United Nations until it was replaced by the People's Republic of China in 1971 when foreign countries switched their diplomatic relations. China views self-governed Taiwan and its 23 million residents as a wayward province and has vowed to retake it by force, if necessary. Many supporters of Taiwan have since argued that it is already an independent sovereign state separate from mainland China, which has never controlled Taiwan. Tensions between the United States and China started to grow during the administration of President Joe Biden in 2022 when then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, sparking a military response from the Chinese government and increased drills in the Taiwan Strait. In 2022, a four-star general predicted that the U.S. and China could be at war by the end of this year. After returning for his second term, President Donald Trump's administration has escalated tensions with China, particularly related to trade tariffs that appear now to be expanding into broader military and diplomatic arenas. For example, the Pentagon has increased naval patrols in contested areas of the South China Sea and bolstered military partnerships with allies including Japan, Australia, and the Philippines. "The Taiwan question is entirely China's internal affair. No country is in a position to interfere. The U.S. should never imagine it could use the Taiwan question as leverage against China," the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. "The U.S. must never play with fire on this question."
The Print
30-05-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Orthodox Russia doesn't take orders from Pope. Vatican can't convince Putin for a ceasefire
Trump's idea of involving the Papal office in the Vatican, the highest seat of the Catholic Church, in the ceasefire talks was a blunder for several reasons. Russia's Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the Roman Catholic Church have been at loggerheads for over ten centuries, probably right from 988 when Grand Prince Vladimir was baptised. The theological split first appeared in 1054 when the then Pope Leo IX of Rome excommunicated Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople, who responded with his own excommunication of the Bishop of Rome, Pope Leo IX. The election of the hitherto unknown Robert Francis Prevost, a quiet lawyer-bishop with years of experience in Church matters, as the vicar of Jesus Christ, the first American Pope, does not change the ground realities of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), did not attend the funeral of Pope Francis, though the two held a meeting in 2016 in Cuba, after almost 10 centuries of schism. There is no reason why Pope Leo XIV would broker peace between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy just because the president of America wants him to do it. Russia's rejection of Vatican-led ceasefire talks with Ukraine should come as a surprise only to those who are ignorant of the historic animosity between the two religious institutions, the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's clarification that it is a little 'awkward for Orthodox countries to discuss issues on a Catholic platform' should put at rest all efforts initiated by US President Donald Trump. Division of churches The October Revolution of 1917 further alienated the two Christian faiths, even as Moscow under the brutal atheist regime of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin stifled religious freedom. After deriding religion as the 'opium of the masses', Stalin launched the 'Godless Five-Year Plan', in 1928, leading to the purging of religion from the territories under the Soviet Union. While the Russian Orthodox Church was enlisted to arouse 'Russian patriotism' in 1942 in the wake of Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan was established in 1943 during the Great Patriotic War. Meanwhile, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church—Kyiv Patriarchate (UOCKP), set up in 1992 by Ukrainian clergy, has been seeking independence from the Kremlin-based ROC. The conflict with Russia has forced the state to adopt a law to ban religious groups linked to Moscow, which the government has accused of complicity in 'Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine'. It is strange that the White House under Trump should expect Putin to sit with Zelensky in the Vatican and submit to the authority of the Holy See. As for his stand on his Ukrainian counterpart—Putin called Zelenskyy 'an ethnic Jew, with Jewish roots, with Jewish origins' put up by his Western masters to cover up 'the antihuman essence' of the modern Ukrainian state and 'the glorification of Nazism'. And Trump expects Putin to shake hands with Zelenskyy in front of the Pope. The US and the European Union members have been constantly accusing Russia under Putin of increasing the State's control over matters of faith, just as it has done in political matters and freedom. They have called Russian Orthodox Church officials as surrogates of Kremlin, working 'in symphony' with the State. While the constitutionally 'secular' Russian state allows citizens to follow any faith of their choice or no faith at all, some Christian and Islamic groups have been banned. The leaders and followers of these groups have been labelled as 'foreign agents' under a 2022 law—arguably to protect the Russian Federation's sovereignty and security. Also read: Don't allow terrorists to regroup. India's military pause with Pakistan can't last long Russia-China-Turkey-Iran axis Besides religious differences, there is another reason why Putin won't sit across the Pope in his Vatican office. In 2021, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Putin, accusing him of serious war crimes following the Russian attack on Ukraine. More than 50 countries have supported the warrant, obliging them to arrest Putin if he happens to land in any one of these countries. Italy is one of them. Therefore, if Putin agrees to arrive at the Vatican to meet the Holy See, he will have to be arrested and probably handed over to the ICC. Alternatively, the ICC will have to withdraw the arrest warrant, thereby facilitating the meeting. But this will mean surrendering its legal autonomy, authority, jurisdiction, and independence to a religious office. The Russia-Ukraine conflict is over acquiring territory, control over natural resources, ownership of rare minerals, and fulfilling Putin's dream of a Russia-centric Eurasian Union, a vast trade and political bloc stretching from China to the edge of the EU. Putin might go ahead with the technical-level negotiation in Istanbul to consolidate Russia-China-Turkey-Iran cooperation—an axis Trump sees as anti-US, anti-West and anti-Vatican. An exasperated Trump could be tempted to renew American military aid to Ukraine, authorising Zelenskyy to use it anywhere including deep inside Russia, impose greater sanctions to cripple the economy and blanket ban on Russian oil even through secondary markets, like India. In a dramatic turn of events, there are reports of Putin's helicopter being at the epicentre of a Ukrainian drone strike, which could lead to further escalation of the conflict. Like conflicting statements on brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, Trump should be ready for a flip-flop on brokering peace through the Putin-Pope meeting. Seshadri Chari is the former editor of 'Organiser'. He tweets @seshadrichari. Views are personal. (Edited by Ratan Priya)
