Seneca Gaming Corporation Holds 2nd Annual Every Child Matters Walk – WGRZ.com

The Every Child Matters walk allowed people of the Indigenous community come together for remembrance and to help heal one another.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Seneca Gaming Corporation and executives gathered Friday in Niagara Falls for their second annual Every Child Matters walk, bringing awareness of the tragedies that took place.

The event, which began at 5:30 p.m., featured special guest speakers with motivational speeches. After that, the walk took place.

People dressed in orange, making a visible and powerful statement to bring brightness.

The remains of roughly more than 1,000 children have been discovered on the grounds of three former residential schools in two Canadian provinces since May. Unmarked graves have even been discovered inside of the residential boarding schools.

The Every Child Matters walk allowed people of the Indigenous community come together for remembrance and to help heal one another.

“Beginning in the 1800s and lasting well into the 1990s, tens of thousands of Native American children were forced to attend residential schools across the United States and Canada, where they were forced to unlearn their names, unlearn traditional language and unlearn their culture. They were often the victims of physical abuse and sexual abuse,” a statement for the event said.

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I Watched A Metaverse Concert And This Is What It Was Like – TODAY

SINGAPORE — There was a “DJ” on a large, illuminated stage playing a remix of Coldplay’s hit A Sky Full of Stars, and there were dozens of “people” dancing to the beat. 

The famed Supertrees from Gardens by the Bay appeared to tower over the venue, and they were pulsating with pink neon lights. The ground, too, was emanating light, and a building that looked like Marina Bay Sands stood in the distance. 

This concert would have cost organisers and arm and a leg to host, taking up virtually the entirety of the Gardens by the Bay venue. 

But the truth was, the organisers had not spent a single cent on renting out the space, or on any physical props, for that matter. 

In fact, “I” was attending this concert, not in my own 28-year-old male self, but in pixels, as a young female avatar wearing hot shorts and a hoodie. 

In other words, I was attending a concert in the metaverse. 

A metaverse is a three-dimensional virtual world where people socialise, work and play, and in this case, the metaverse was akin to a gaming world, where I had a specific character that could walk around and interact with the 3D environment. 

The idea of the metaverse puzzled me, being someone who hardly plays computer games.

So, when I heard that telecommunications company M1 was teaming up with Gardens by the Bay and e-gaming firm Electronic Sports Private Limited (ESPL) on Tuesday (Sept 27) to showcase a demo of a metaverse concert, I joined in on the fun.

GROWTH IN POPULARITY OF THE METAVERSE

It seemed like a concept for the distant future, up till I noticed that just last month, a couple had actually gotten married in the metaverse, which they said was the first marriage of its kind. 

In fact, the metaverse has been a buzzword for over a year, ever since Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg renamed his Facebook company to Meta in October last year, signalling its big push into the metaverse. 

Since then, various companies, both local and global, have delved into this concept. 

For instance, DBS Bank last month collaborated with The Sandbox, a decentralised virtual gaming world, to acquire a unit of virtual real estate in The Sandbox metaverse. 

Even governments have been delving into the metaverse. English language daily the Khaleej Times reported last month that the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Economy would have a new headquarters located in the metaverse, where anyone can visit. 

Whether the popularity of the metaverse will continue to expand will depend on an “ecosystem” of different stakeholders, said Professor Lim Sun Sun, head of humanities, arts and social sciences at the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

For instance, technology such as 5G networks, the accessibility of immersive devices such as virtual reality (VR) headsets, and the variety of metaverse events have to develop at the same pace to sustain the growth of the concept.

“It speaks to the broader ecosystem, whether or not the metaverse environments are appealing, whether they are welcoming, whether the hardware becomes more comfortable, whether that sort of physiological experience of interacting with others (in the metaverse) becomes more palatable over time, and so on,” said Prof Lim. 

BOTH A LIVE PERFORMANCE AND A VIDEO GAME

For the metaverse concert demo, members of the media were invited to Floral Fantasy, an indoor garden at Gardens by the Bay, where we could use several smartphones on display, which was to be our window to the metaverse.

This didn’t seem very special at first, as I initially thought that having a VR headset would make for a more immersive experience, by granting users a 360-degree view of the metaverse. However, I understood that not everyone would have a VR headset, so a smartphone could actually be the primary mode the metaverse is accessed in the future. 

According to M1 and Gardens by the Bay, having the metaverse experience on a smartphone was a remarkable achievement in itself. 

Deputy chief executive officer of Gardens by the Bay Lee Kok Fatt said that it is only with a 5G network that the metaverse can be experienced from the typical mobile devices.

“The content (of the metaverse) is very rich and heavy, so before the advent of 5G, it required users to download a very big file to access the user experience,” he said. 

He added that Gardens by the Bay, M1 and ESPL will be working together to provide 5G connectivity at Gardens by the Bay’s indoor venues and this will make such metaverse events more accessible there. 

What I found special about the metaverse was that it was a mashup between both a live performance and a video game. 

The “live performance” came in the form of an actual DJ, Jasmine H Nera, who goes by the stage name DJ Red, playing at this demo event. Her physical self, however, was at another location within Gardens by the Bay, while her avatar was on the metaverse stage that I could see from the phone, behind a DJ console.

There was a “live chat” function, where I could type messages or questions to Ms Nera. I typed: “How will the metaverse benefit you?” 

Ms Nera’s own physical face popped up on a large screen in the back of the metaverse stage and she was able to reply me, live. 

“The convenience is there because it allows me to just stream from wherever I am… that provides me a great way to talk to my fans, especially the international fans, because they are not going to be able to fly in just for my show,” she said. 

I found this function particularly distinct from a typical live performance, where performers would scarcely be able to respond to specific fans amid the chorus of screams. It added an intimate touch to the event. 

And with the performance being viewed on a smartphone, it was a largely two-dimensional experience, with the sound quality itself the same as when watching a YouTube video. This paled in comparison to being at a live concert, as the feeling of jostling with the crowd and having live music blast out of large speakers could not be replicated. 

On the other hand, the entire experience also felt like I was playing a video game, with my avatar’s movements around the metaverse space, from running around to jumping, controlled by me. 

This was in theory supposed to give my avatar some degree of freedom in the concert venue. Sure enough, I could just weave between other partygoers and easily find myself at the front of the stage.

For now, there was also no way for me to change my avatar from a woman to a man, let alone customise the avatar’s appearance and clothing, but this was an option that will be added in later, the developers told me. 

Other burning questions which I had were also addressed, namely, whether there was any safeguard against harassment or abusive behaviour in the metaverse. For instance, could an avatar run on stage and disrupt the show, or hurl vulgarities at other audience members? 

Project Chair of ESPL Roland Ong said that while there is nothing to stop users from posting what they want, there is the possibility of having moderators on the platform, to ensure that anyone deemed to be abusive or disruptive to the performance can be booted out of the metaverse. 

“Secondly, we can use software to catch words that are undesirable, so that they are censored right away,” he added. 

Overall, it was an extremely novel experience, one that I would not mind doing again when the operating system is more refined and updated. It presents an opportunity for me to “attend” a performance without committing a lot of time and money, yet also allows for some degree of interaction that an online video cannot provide. 

However, I can safely say that I would not want the metaverse to replace actual live performances, as there is a certain tangibility about them that is difficult to emulate. 

THE AIM IS NOT TO REPLACE LIVE PERFORMANCES: M1, GARDENS BY THE BAY

My concerns that we were heading for an entirely virtual world bereft of “traditional” live performances were quickly assuaged, because the aim of testing out the metaverse was never to fully replace the real life concert experience. 

Mr Ong from ESPL said that the metaverse will allow tourists the chance to “explore” Gardens by the Bay without flying down. 

However, the end goal is still to attract people to visit the physical venue itself. 

“(Gardens by the Bay’s) status as a global icon, we can use it to host local artists and showcase them to the world, that is another one of our objectives,” Mr Lee said. 

Chief corporate sales and solutions officer from M1, Mr Willis Sim, said that other than cutting the costs of renting out large spaces, the metaverse provides concert organisers the opportunity expand their reach, by either holding an event entirely on the metaverse, or have hybrid events, where some of the audience is live, and another group is in attendance online. 

“This will increase the revenue for the artists, the concert and the event organiser,” he said. 

Members of the public, too, can hold their own metaverse events at Gardens by the Bay. 

“If you book a wedding package, you can discuss with us right away, if you want an option to also make it available on the metaverse,” said Mr Ong.

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The Biggest Gaming News For September 30, 2022 – TheGamer

Hideo Kojima’s Stadia exclusive was turned down by Google and developers are trying to rescue their Stadia users.

It’s finally the end of another busy month for the gaming industry, but that doesn’t mean things are slowing down as we head into October. We’ve got all the fallout from yesterday’s Stadia announcement to cover, including news that Kojima’s Stadia exclusive game was reportedly cancelled due to it being only single-player.

We’ve also seen numerous developers announce that they’re trying to help its user transfer their games from the service, with one Red Dead Online player desperately hoping Rockstar will transfer their 6,000 hours of play time. For all the details, read on.

Google Reportedly Cancelled Hideo Kojima’s Stadia Exclusive Due To It Being Single-Player

We’ll start off with the Kojima news, as it has been reported that Kojima Productions had an exclusivity deal with Google only for the title to be cancelled for being a single-player experience. Stadia general manager Phil Harrison allegedly didn’t think there was much of a market for single-player games these days and scrapped the project. While we don’t know what happened to the project, it’s likely it could have been repurposed as a game called Overdose that is rumored to be in development for Microsoft and Xbox.

Hitman Dev Tells Stadia Players It’s Looking For A Way To Transfer Progress

With the announcement of Stadia’s shuttering, users have understandably been worried about what’s going to happen to their games and their saves. While Google has assured players will be completely refunded for all purchases made via the Stadia store, some fans are still miffed that all of their progress on Stadia is going to be erased. Several developers have come forward today saying that they’re looking into potentially transferring games and progress to other platforms, including Hitman developer IO Interactive, Ubisoft, and Bungie.

Red Dead Online Stadia Player With 6,000 Hours Begs Rockstar For Character Transfer

One user will be hoping that Rockstar will be added to that list soon, as someone that has racked up a whopping 6,000 hours on Red Dead Online is begging the developer to let them transfer their character to another platform. Rockstar has yet to respond as to whether it will be sorting out character transfers, but if it doesn’t then all those 6,000 hours will be for nothing once the service shuts down in January next year.

God Of War PC Port Studio Is Working On A “Flagship” Live Service Game With Sony

It’s not all about Stadia today though, as it was also revealed that the developers behind the PC port of God of War – Jetpack Interactive – are currently working on a “flagship” live-service title for Sony. We don’t know whether this title will be connected to God of War at all, but it does look like the company is ramping up plans to launch 10 live-service games by 2025.

Community Movie Announced, Donald Glover And Yvette Nicole Brown Not Attached

Finally, we have big news for fans of the TV series Community as its been announced that a movie has been ordered by streaming service Peacock. Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, and Ken Jeong are all set to return, with McHale also set to be an executive producer. Unfortunately, Donald Glover, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Chevy Chase aren’t currently confirmed to be reprising their roles.

Next: An Obituary For Overwatch

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Putin, Russia And Ukraine War News: Live Updates – The New York Times

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President Vladimir V. Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on Friday.Credit…Pool photo by Dmitry Astakhov

President Vladimir V. Putin on Friday asserted that Russia would take control of four Ukrainian regions and decried the United States for “Satanism” in a speech that marked an escalation in Moscow’s war against Ukraine and positioned Russia, in starkly confrontational terms, as fighting an existential battle with Western elites he deemed “the enemy.”

Speaking to hundreds of Russian lawmakers and governors in a grand Kremlin hall, Mr. Putin said that the residents of the four regions — which are still partially controlled by Ukrainian forces — would become Russia’s citizens “forever.” He then held a signing ceremony with the Russian-installed heads of those regions to start the official annexation process, before clasping hands with them and chanting “Russia! Russia!”

Mr. Putin’s address came against a backdrop of Russian embarrassments on the battlefield, where Ukraine’s forces have scored stunning victories in recent weeks in the east. Even as the Russian leader spoke, officials said the Ukrainian army had moved closer to encircling the Russian-occupied town of Lyman, a strategically important hub in the Donetsk region that lies inside the territory Mr. Putin is claiming.

Even by Mr. Putin’s increasingly antagonistic standards, the speech was extraordinary, a combination of bluster and menace that mixed conspiratorial riffs against the American-led “neocolonial system” with an appeal to the world to see Russia as the leader of an uprising against American power.

He referred to “the ruling circles of the so-called West” as “the enemy,” a word he rarely uses in reference to the West — and struck a tone of spiteful anger and defiance.

“Not only do Western elites deny national sovereignty and international law,” he said in the 37-minute address. “Their hegemony has a pronounced character of totalitarianism, despotism and apartheid.”

Western leaders have condemned Russia’s annexations as illegal, and the “referendums’’ that preceded them — purporting to show local support for joining Russia — as fraudulent. The Biden administration announced new sanctions in response to the Kremlin’s move.

President Biden was quick to denounce Mr. Putin’s actions to annex the four territories, saying they “have no legitimacy’’ and adding that “the United States will always honor Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders.’’

Ukraine’s government has rebuffed Mr. Putin’s claims and vowed to retake territory captured by Russia in the east and south. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to Mr. Putin’s speech on Friday by announcing that he was fast-tracking his country’s application to the NATO alliance. In a video, he accused the Kremlin of trying to “steal something that does not belong to it.” “Ukraine will not allow that,” he said.

Mr. Putin insisted that Russia’s position on annexing the four territories was nonnegotiable, adding that the country would defend them “with all the forces and means at our disposal.”

“I call on the Kyiv regime to immediately cease fire and all military action,” he said, and for the Ukrainian government “to return to the negotiating table.”

“But we will not discuss the decision of the people of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson,” he went on, referring to the four Ukrainian regions being annexed. “It has been made. Russia will not betray it.”

Mr. Putin cast the conflict with the West in even more severe terms than in previous speeches, reeling off centuries of Western military actions to denounce the American-led world order as fundamentally evil, corrupt and set on Russia’s destruction.

“The repression of freedom is taking on the outlines of a ‘reverse religion,’ of real Satanism,” Mr. Putin said, asserting that liberal Western values on matters like gender identity amounted to a “denial of man.”

But Mr. Putin offered few new details on the matter that is now perhaps of greatest concern in Western capitals — whether, and at what point, he may be prepared to use weapons of mass destruction to force Ukraine to capitulate. His spokesman said earlier in the day that after the annexation of the four regions — a move that virtually no other country is expected to recognize — an attack on those regions would be treated as an attack on Russia.

Without saying so directly, Mr. Putin hinted that the role of nuclear weapons in war is on his mind. Describing the West as “deceitful and hypocritical through and through,” Mr. Putin noted that the United States was the only country to have used nuclear weapons in war. He then added: “By the way, they created a precedent.”

Valerie Hopkins and Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting.

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President Biden said during a news conference at the White House on Friday that the world would not recognize Russia’s annexation efforts.Credit…Pete Marovich for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Biden warned Russia on Friday that the United States and its allies would not be intimidated by its latest actions in Ukraine and said that the world would not recognize the sham referendum that President Vladimir V. Putin staged to justify seizing Ukrainian land.

Speaking at a news conference at the White House, Mr. Biden said the United States and its allies would continue to support Ukraine with military equipment and aid. He warned that anyone who supported Russia’s fraudulent claims to Ukrainian territory would also be subject to economic sanctions.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Putin announced in a bellicose speech that Russia would annex four Ukrainian provinces it had invaded. The Russian leader cast the war in Ukraine as an existential battle against the United States and its allies. He accused America of “Satanism” and of trying to impose its culture on the rest of the world.

“He’s not going to scare us or intimidate us,” Mr. Biden said. “He can’t seize his neighbor’s land and get away with it.”

The president also said that Mr. Putin should not dare to take his fight into NATO territory, underscoring the unity among the alliance.

“America’s fully prepared with our NATO allies to defend every single inch of NATO territory, every single inch,” Mr. Biden said, adding: “Mr. Putin, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying.”

The United States has been investigating leaks that emerged in the Nord Stream gas pipeline and while Mr. Biden said it is not clear exactly what had happened, he believed the damage was the result of Russia’s actions. The United States, he said, is now helping European countries to protect their critical infrastructure.

“It was a deliberate act of sabotage, and now the Russians are pumping out disinformation and lies,” Mr. Biden said.

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The Russian Central Bank headquarters in Moscow. Credit…Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is enacting a round of new sanctions aimed at further crippling Russia’s defense and technology sectors and other industries, as well as cutting off more top officials and their families from global commerce, to punish Moscow for its efforts to annex parts of eastern Ukraine.

The Treasury and Commerce Departments will impose sanctions and export controls on any companies, institutions or people who “provide political or economic support to Russia for its purported annexation,” White House officials said on Friday.

“Make no mistake: these actions have no legitimacy,” President Biden said in a statement. “I urge all members of the international community to reject Russia’s illegal attempts at annexation and to stand with the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said in a separate statement that “the United States unequivocally rejects Russia’s fraudulent attempt to change Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders”

“This is a clear violation of international law and the United Nations Charter,” he added. “In response, the United States and our allies and partners are imposing swift and severe costs.”

The moves fulfill longtime vows by the Biden administration to punish any move by Russia to annex captured Ukrainian territory. But just as those threats failed to deter President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, it is unclear whether the new penalties — which compound a slew of crushing sanctions imposed in recent months — will blunt his determination.

The Treasury Department said as part of the broad announcement that it is enacting sanctions against 14 international companies for supporting supply chains of the Russian military.

The Treasury Department is putting nearly 300 members of the Parliament on a sanctions list, along with Elvira Sakhipzadovna Nabiullina, the governor of the Central Bank of Russia; Olga Nikolaevna Skorobogatova, the first deputy governor of the bank; Aleksandr Valentinovich Nova, a deputy prime minister; and relatives of members of the National Security Council. U.S. agencies had already put Russian security council members on lists.

The State Department also is imposing visa restrictions on more than 900 Russian officials.

The Commerce Department is adding 57 entities from Russia and the Crimea region of Ukraine, which the Russian military forcibly occupied in 2014, to what it calls the entity list, which limits commercial transactions. Officials also plan to try to ensure that companies outside the United States are restricted in the business they can do with those on the list. The Commerce Department now has 392 entities linked to Russia on the list.

The Biden administration was not alone in announcing punitive measures in response to Russia’s illegal annexation.

Britain’s Foreign Office on Friday announced a series of sweeping new sanctions on key services and placed a ban on 700 goods “that are crucial to Russia’s industrial and technological capabilities.” It also put in place an asset freeze and travel ban for Ms. Nabiullina.

Mr. Biden said the United States would “continue to support Ukraine’s efforts to regain control of its territory by strengthening its hand militarily and diplomatically,” citing $1.1 billion in new security aid his administration announced for Ukraine this week. He added that he anticipated signing legislation from Congress, in response to a White House request, that will provide an additional $12 billion in U.S. aid for Ukraine.

Despite the latest announcement of sanctions, the Biden administration is still refraining from imposing new penalties on purchases by international companies of Russian oil and gas, the biggest source of revenue for the Kremlin. Russia has been making more money from energy sales than it did before Mr. Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, despite boycotts of purchases by the United States and major European nations. China, India and Turkey have negotiated discounted prices on Russian oil and increased their purchases.

U.S. officials have been discussing a price cap on Russian oil with foreign counterparts, and finance ministers from the Group of 7 nations recently voiced approval for such a move, but governments have yet to decide on final mechanisms or a price.

Megan Specia contributed reporting.

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Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, condemned Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s occupied territories on Friday and vowed to continue helping Ukraine until it defeats the aggressor.Credit…Yves Herman/Reuters

As President Vladimir V. Putin moved on Friday to take control of four Ukrainian regions, the European Union and NATO denounced Russia, saying they would never accept the illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory.

President Emmanuel Macron of France condemned Russia’s illegal annexation on Friday, calling it a “serious violation of international law and Ukrainian sovereignty.” Mr. Macron said on Twitter that France would “continue to stand by Ukraine to confront Russian aggression and allow Ukraine to recover its full sovereignty over its entire territory.”

The Kremlin’s effort to subsume Ukrainian territory has amplified the stakes for the West, as Mr. Putin again disregards the international order that has governed Europe for decades. Moscow’s gambit also appeared to have immediate consequences for the security calculus on the continent, with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine announcing on Friday that his country was seeking fast-track membership of NATO. In a video, he accused the Kremlin of trying to “steal something that does not belong to it,” saying, “Ukraine will not allow that.”

Mr. Zelensky also signaled that negotiations with Mr. Putin had become untenable.

“It was our state that always offered Russia to reach an agreement on coexistence on equal, honest, decent and fair terms,” he said. “It is obvious that this is impossible with this Russian president. He does not know what dignity and honesty are. Therefore, we are ready for a dialogue with Russia, but already with another president of Russia.”

Speaking to reporters on Friday evening, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, called Moscow’s action “an illegal and illegitimate land grab,” and vowed to continue helping Ukraine until it defeats Russia.

“If we let Putin win in Ukraine, it will be catastrophic for Ukraine,” he said. “Ukraine will cease to exist as an independent nation. But it will also be dangerous for us.”

Even among Russia’s traditional allies, no country has come forward to recognize the annexation. Uzbekistan — one of the former Soviet republics in Central Asia — issued a statement before Mr. Putin’s speech, saying it was committed to “respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the noninterference in the internal affairs of other states.”

President Maia Sandu of Moldova — another post-Soviet country that Moscow has tried to court — said she condemned and rejected “Russia’s attempt to illegally annex occupied regions” of Ukraine.

The European Union echoed Mr. Biden’s denunciation of Russia, saying that the bloc would never accept the annexation. The European Council, which is made up of the union’s government ministers, said in a statement that “the nuclear threats made by the Kremlin, the military mobilization and the strategy of seeking to falsely present Ukraine’s territory as Russia’s” would “not shake our resolve.”

The Council of Europe, the continent’s main institution governing human rights, also castigated Russia, saying that the annexation constituted a reckless breach of international law.

“The forcible change of international borders at the expense of another sovereign state, and the so-called ‘referenda’ that preceded it, constitute a grave breach of international law and cannot be recognized,” the organization said in a statement.

In March it suspended Russia from participating, saying that its invasion of Ukraine went against everything the Council stood for.

In Washington, President Biden said Mr. Putin’s actions “have no legitimacy,’’ condemning Russia’s “fraudulent attempt” to gobble sovereign land and stressing that the United States “will always honor Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders.”

In a statement, he added that Russia was “violating international law, trampling on the United Nations Charter, and showing its contempt for peaceful nations everywhere. ”

Monika Pronczuk and Aurelien Breeden contributed reporting.

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A photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office of President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine, leading a meeting on national security on Friday.Credit…Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, via Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine responded to Russia’s claims to have annexed four Ukrainian provinces by announcing that Ukraine is applying for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“We are taking our decisive step by signing Ukraine’s application for accelerated accession to NATO,” Mr. Zelensky said in a statement posted on the presidential website. He said Ukraine was cooperating closely with NATO and argued that Ukraine’s army has already helped secure alliance members in Europe against Russian aggression by inflicting battlefield defeats on the Russian army in Ukraine.

“It is in Ukraine that the fate of democracy in the confrontation with tyranny is being decided,” he said.

Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine’s application could be fast-tracked similarly to the applications of Sweden and Finland.

In Brussels, the secretary general of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, said that Ukraine, like every democracy in Europe, has the right to apply for membership in the alliance, but he cautioned that a decision about accepting a new member is taken by all 30 allied countries by consensus.

NATO’s immediate focus is to continue providing support to Ukraine, so it can “defend itself against the Russian brutal invasion,” Mr. Stoltenberg said.

Ukraine’s desire to join the alliance has long been a source of conflict with Russia, which sees the eastward expansion of NATO as a existential threat. President Vladimir V. Putin has said the expansion of NATO would leave Russia hemmed in with Western missiles on its doorstep, and it appeared to be one of the pretexts for his invasion.

In February, Mr. Zelensky stressed his country’s ambition to be admitted into NATO, an aspiration fixed in Ukraine’s Constitution since 2019. But by March, as war with Russia raged, Mr. Zelensky had backed down, signaling that his country needed to accept that it might never join.

Ukraine’s application to join NATO likely faces big hurdles — which the Ukrainian president appeared to acknowledge, noting that he was aware that admitting a country requires unanimous consent from all of NATO’s 30 members.

“We know it’s possible,” Mr. Zelensky said in his statement, pointing to the recent examples of Finland and Sweden undertaking the accession process. “This is fair,” he added. “This is also fair for Ukraine.”

There is no question that Ukraine would benefit from NATO’s defining credo, which says that “an armed attack” against any member is considered an attack against them all. But, as an alliance predicated on the doctrine of mutual defense, it would be highly unlikely to admit a country ensnared in war.

U.S. officials have said that they will not appease Mr. Putin by quashing Kyiv’s ambition to join the alliance. But Washington and its European allies have also been wary of further antagonizing Russia and risking a wider war, and it remains to be seen how Mr. Putin’s annexation of parts of Ukrainian territory may alter the alliance’s calculus.

France and Germany, among others, have in the past opposed or been skeptical of Ukraine’s inclusion. And analysts say that President Biden, wary of further U.S. military commitments, has also been reluctant to support Ukraine’s membership in the past.

Even if Ukraine could overcome those hurdles, it could face other challenges.

NATO observes an “open-door policy” that says that any European nation that wants to join can do so, if it meets certain requirements. Among them is demonstrating a commitment to democracy, individual liberty and support for the rule of law. While Ukrainian leaders say their country meets that threshold, some American and European officials have argued otherwise.

Experts warned that Ukraine’s NATO membership at the moment seems elusive at best. The process could take at least several months, and even years.

“It will take time,” said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former NATO secretary general. “Until it happens, Ukraine needs cast-iron security guarantees from its allies.”

Monika Pronczuk in Brussels contributed reporting.

Ukrainian soldiers at the scene of a Russian missile strike at the edge of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Friday.Credit…Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched a flurry of rocket, drone and missile strikes against Ukrainian towns and cities overnight Thursday to Friday, creating scenes of destruction inside Ukraine as the Kremlin planned an elaborate, and widely rejected, annexation ceremony in Moscow.

The most lethal strike hit in Zaporizhzhia, one of the four Ukrainian provinces that Moscow plans to declare part of Russia on Friday as part of an annexation process that has been condemned by the West as a sham and came after a humiliating battlefield defeat. The attack killed at least 30 civilians who were waiting at a checkpoint and bus stop, and injured about 88, according to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. That would make it one of the deadliest single attacks against civilians in recent weeks.

Mr. Zelensky, in his nightly address, called the attack “deliberate and premeditated murder of Ukrainians,” adding that, “the Russian military knew where their missiles would hit.”

The wave of overnight strikes came as President Vladimir V. Putin declared regions where battles are raging — in Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk — to be Russian territory. Moscow says it would then be defending rather than attacking the territory, its stated justification to use any means necessary, in a thinly veiled nuclear threat.

Bridget Brink, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, called the missile strike in Zaporizhzhia “horrific news.”

“Amid its losses on the battlefield, Russia continues strikes on Ukrainian civilians, a further demonstration that Ukraine’s fight is not only a fight for freedom and sovereignty, but for survival,” she wrote on Twitter.

A strike also hit residential neighborhoods in Mykolaiv, killing at least three and wounding 19, the regional governor said. Russian strikes hit a bus depot in the city of Dnipro, and Ukraine’s military said that at least half a dozen Iranian-made kamikaze drones had been fired at targets in southern Ukraine.

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The strike killed at least 25 civilians at a checkpoint and bus stop, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general, making it one of the deadliest attacks against Ukrainian civilians in recent weeks.CreditCredit…Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

The governor of Zaporizhzhia, Oleksandr Starukh, said a rocket had hit a convoy of cars lined up at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city. People in the convoy were waiting to be allowed into Russian-occupied territory to pick up relatives and deliver humanitarian aid, he said.

“All were civilians, our compatriots,” Mr. Starukh said in a message on the Telegram social media app. He declared Saturday a day of mourning.

Zaporizhzhia, a large regional center on the Dnipro River, is often the first port of call for civilians fleeing Russian-controlled territory further south, a place where they can find food and shelter before moving to other parts of the country, usually farther west away from the fighting.

But every day there are also long convoys of vehicles headed the other direction, into Russian-controlled territory. Those are typically people going to check on older relatives, and volunteers in trucks carrying humanitarian aid, particularly medicines, which are largely unavailable in occupied territories or can be purchased only at exorbitant prices.

Because the checkpoint at a highway crossing on the outskirts of town does not operate on a schedule, people line up early in the morning and sometimes wait all day for a chance to pass through, leading to long lines of vehicles.

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Crowds in Crimea watch Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s speech on Friday.Credit…Associated Press

The speech that Vladimir V. Putin gave to Russian lawmakers and governors on Friday asserting that Russia would take control of four Ukrainian regions reverberated far beyond the Kremlin’s walls. It was a display of belligerent defiance intended, it seemed, to appeal to three primary audiences.

To Russians, he sought to justify the expanding hardship his war has caused by insisting they were fighting for their survival. To the West, he telegraphed his determination that he was unbowed by sanctions or arms deliveries to Ukraine — and that Russia would keep fighting. Implicit in his message was a veiled but menacing threat that Moscow still has an enormous nuclear arsenal.

And to the rest of the world, Mr. Putin tried to cast himself as the leader of a global movement against “Western racists” that he claimed were imposing American hegemony upon the world. The West, he asserted, had not changed from centuries past, in which European powers brutally colonized impoverished countries and fought wars to gain economic advantage.

Western countries, he insisted, had “no moral right” to condemn the annexation of parts of Ukraine.

“The Western elites remain colonizers as they always were,” Mr. Putin said. “They have divided the world into their vassals — the so-called ‘civilized countries’ — and everyone else.”

Several hours after his speech, Mr. Putin appeared onstage at a concert and rally celebrating the annexation on Red Square outside the Kremlin. Russian news media reported that Moscow universities had directed students to attend.

Standing before St. Basil’s Cathedral below a banner that said “Russia!” and that was flanked with others reading “Choice of the people!” and “Together forever!,” Mr. Putin reprised his false historical narrative about Ukraine having been “created” by the Soviet Union and led the crowd in chanting “Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!”

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Ukrainian military near the city of Lyman in east Ukraine, last week, as Ukrainian forces were trying to recapture the area.Credit…Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Ukrainian forces appeared to have made progress toward recapturing Lyman, a rail hub in the country’s east, with the head of Russia’s proxy administration in the province saying on Friday that the town was “half encircled.”

“This is very unpleasant news, but we must look soberly at the situation and draw conclusions from our mistakes,” said Denis Pushilin, the leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

In another sign of Ukraine’s progress in the strategic town, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Telegram that Russian forces “will have to ask for an exit” from Lyman.

Control of the town is seen as a test of whether Ukraine can build on military gains made earlier in the month, but the exact status of the battle was not immediately clear.

Donetsk Province, where Russia holds significant territory, is one of four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine that Russia is illegally annexing after staged referendums in recent days that Ukraine and Western governments have denounced as fraudulent. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Friday signed decrees to declare the four regions part of Russia.

Fighting for Lyman, which is in the northern part of Donetsk Province, has intensified over the last few weeks after Ukraine made a series of gains during a rapid counteroffensive in Kharkiv Province in the country’s northeast.

When Lyman fell to Russian forces in May, it presaged the capture weeks later of twin cities to the east of town. Those cities, Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, succumbed to Russian forces who had maximized their superior firepower in helping Moscow to seize control of Luhansk Province, which together with neighboring Donetsk forms the Donbas.

If Ukraine were to recapture Lyman, it would not only increase the likelihood of regaining additional land in Luhansk and Donetsk but put additional pressure on the Kremlin.

Mr. Pushilin said on Telegram that Russia had also lost control of Yampil and Dobryshev, villages north and east of Lyman.

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The leaks from the Nord Stream undersea pipelines, hit by explosions in recent days, could be among the largest-ever human-caused releases of planet-warming methane gas into the atmosphere, scientists say — equal to the size of a whole year’s emissions from a city the size of Paris, or a country like Denmark.

Now, researchers at the Integrated Carbon Observation System, a Europe-wide research network that runs air monitoring stations across the continent have taken readings of methane gas from the leaks and combined them with weather and other atmospheric patterns to model the path of the plume. The gas curled its way north over the Baltic Sea to the Finnish archipelago before swinging west toward Sweden and Norway and reaching the British Isles.

The researchers say that the modeling is preliminary; it shows the emissions ending, for example, though methane continues to surge from the damaged pipelines, causing a mass of bubbles on the water’s surface. And estimating an exact reading of the amount of methane released is still tricky, said Alex Vermeulen, an atmospheric scientist who heads the European network’s carbon monitoring effort.

There was no direct safety or health risk to regions directly below the methane plume, Dr. Vermeulen said. Concentrations of methane at that point in time after the explosions would be far below levels where the gas would be explosive, or pose direct health hazards.

Still, the ground-based observations from measuring stations in Scandinavia and in the United Kingdom were proving valuable in tracking the release, especially because satellites, blocked by cloudy weather in the region, have struggled to get a clear picture of the leaks. GHGSat, a company that uses satellites to measure greenhouse gas emissions from space, said Friday that one of the leaks was releasing 23 tons of methane an hour — the equivalent of burning 630,000 tons of coal every hour.

Even a leak of this magnitude is just a fraction of overall global emissions. But methane is a particularly potent if short-lived greenhouse gas, warming the atmosphere about 30 times more than carbon dioxide over a period of 100 years, helping to worsen climate change. Just Thursday, scientists said that the oil and gas industry was likely releasing more methane into the atmosphere than previously estimated.

“All these leaks together, we have gas going into the atmosphere at an unprecedented rate,” Dr. Vermeulen said. “That’s a big concern.”

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The Russian consulate in Manhattan was vandalized on Friday, according to the police.Credit…Jeenah Moon for The New York Times

The Russian Consulate in New York was vandalized with spray paint early Friday morning, according to the police.

Officers responded to a 911 call about vandalism on the facade of the building, located on East 91st Street, just off Fifth Avenue, at about 1:30 a.m. on Friday, the police said.

No words were visible, just wide streaks of red paint sprawled across the ground floor facade of the building, covering windows and a set of double doors. But some on social media and a few people passing by interpreted the vandalism to be a protest of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.

The vandalism appeared just hours before President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia gave a belligerent speech in Moscow about the annexation of four regions in Ukraine.

Some of the people who stopped in front of the consulate on Friday morning expressed their support for Ukraine.

Maria Phillips, 39, who was born in what was then the Soviet Union and now lives is London, took photos of the scene.

“I feel moved by it,” she said. “It obviously stands for blood, which Russia is responsible for, killing Ukrainian people and sending people to die in the war, which is pointless and cruel and stupid.”

Marina Kovalenko, 57, a personal trainer who lives nearby, saw photos of the paint on social media and hurried over to catch a glimpse. To her, it was a work of art, and she commended the vandals and offered to bail them out if they were caught.

There have been no arrests, and the episode was deemed a possible bias incident, the police said.

“I always was thinking to spray the flag, but I’m short,” Ms. Kovalenko joked. “And I know it’s criminal.”

She said she moved to the United States from Russia 11 years ago, but her family remained there. She added that she thought the paint should remain until Russia’s government changed course.

“I wish I was brave enough to do it myself,” she said.

Julia Krushelnysky, a Ukrainian American senior at the Spence School across the street from the consulate, teared up as she surveyed the scene. She said it had been very difficult for her to attend school daily as the war grinds on.

“It’s very emotional to have this very visual representation of the Russian consulate every day, something a little bit tough for me,” she said.

The Russian consulate referred questions about the incident to the U.S. State Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A sign on the consulate’s door said all appointments were canceled for the day.

— Karen Zraick and Mable Chan

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A local resident rides past an abandoned Russian tank in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, on Thursday.Credit…Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

President Vladimir V. Putin declared on Friday that some 40,000 square miles of eastern and southern Ukraine would become part of Russia — an annexation broadly denounced by the West, but a signal that the Russian leader is raising the stakes in the seven-month-old war.

The Russian leader spoke in the chandeliered St. George’s Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace — the same place where he declared in March 2014 that the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea was part of Russia.

“This is the will of millions of people,” he said before signing decrees to declare four Ukrainian regions part of Russia. “This is their right, their inalienable right.”

Here is what we know:

What is Russia proposing?

Russia says it is annexing four provinces — Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — in the south and the east of Ukraine where intense fighting continues. Moscow hastily put the plan in motion after a humiliating battlefield defeat drove the Russian Army out of another province, Kharkiv, in early September and the Ukrainian advance appeared to be gathering force.

The move sets the stage for the Kremlin to assert that it is defending, not attacking, in the war in Ukraine — and so it is justified to use any military means necessary, a thinly veiled nuclear threat. Annexing the provinces could be used as a rationale for drafting Ukrainian men living there to fight other Ukrainians in the war, helping to solve a shortage of troops in the Russian Army.

Why does the international community oppose it?

The United States, its European allies and many other countries oppose Russia’s nuclear saber rattling and say that allowing a country to capture new territory militarily sets a destabilizing precedent. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, an article published by the Council on Foreign Relations observed that Russia, a member of the United Nations, was violating the United Nations Charter, which requires that U.N. member states refrain from the “use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.”

Western allies of Ukraine say the supposed referendums showing support for uniting with Russia were a sham, as some residents of occupied areas were forced to vote at gunpoint, and a large portion of the population had fled as internally displaced people or refugees. The final tallies could also have easily been falsified.

How much land in the regions do the Russians control?

Much of the territory Russia is is claiming as its territory is occupied by the Russian army already. Russia captured and set up client states controlling about a third of two provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk, in a war that began in 2014. Its military advanced into the other two provinces, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, in the invasion that began in February.

The front lines have shifted in fierce, seesaw fighting over the seven months of the war, with Russia mostly losing ground. The Russian army now controls most of the Luhansk and Kherson regions and about half of the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. Thousands of square miles of territory and hundreds of cities, towns and villages are now under firm Ukrainian control in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, including the capital of one province, the city of Zaporizhzhia.

How is Ukraine responding?

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and his ministers and commanders say they will continue their fight to expel the Russian Army from Ukraine, regardless of whether Moscow calls parts of their country Russia.

What is the process, and what comes next?

The Kremlin is using pageantry and a show of adhering to Russian legal formalities to give the annexation a veneer of legitimacy. A rally was planned on Red Square on Friday to celebrate. The proxy leaders of the four provinces traveled to Moscow and appealed to Mr. Putin to accept their regions as part of Russia.

If the process follows the template laid down in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea, Mr. Putin will submit a draft law to Russia’s Parliament proposing to expand the country’s borders.

The constitutional court will then review the proposal and both chambers vote on it. There should be no surprises: All members of Parliament are loyal to Mr. Putin. Mr. Putin would then sign the law on accession and claim the new territory.

SALTIVKA, Ukraine — In her rundown apartment building on the edge of Kharkiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine, Antonina Andriyenko felt the vibrations but couldn’t hear the explosions when Russia invaded in late February. She knew something was happening only when her panicked neighbors rushed to leave.

“At first I thought it was an earthquake,” said Ms. Andriyenko, 74, who is deaf and lives with her 48-year-old daughter, Tanya, who is deaf and autistic. In an interview through a sign language interpreter, Ms. Andriyenko described the fear and confusion as the Russian forces pounded the city.

“We were afraid to sleep. We stayed in a corner hiding,” she said. “The windows were breaking.”

Like others with disabilities, for the estimated 40,000 deaf and hearing-impaired Ukrainians, the war is particularly dangerous and difficult to navigate. While several thousand deaf Ukrainians have been evacuated to safer areas or neighboring countries, Ms. Andriyenko was among the many more who remained.

She and her daughter were among only a handful of residents left in her 72-unit building in a heavily damaged apartment complex in Saltivka, a suburb on the northern edge of Kharkiv. She said that the remaining neighbors watched out for them.

Saltivka, with its sprawling Soviet-era apartment blocks, is just 20 miles from the border with Russia and took the brunt of the initial assault. Attacks and counterattacks continued for months.

Kharkiv is calmer now, but anxiety has not completely disappeared. Russia is still sending occasional rockets into the area amid reports that it is also massing troops along the border.

One day in July, Ms. Andriyenko, an outgoing woman who gestures animatedly and communicates by writing simple notes in Russian, was standing outside her apartment. Not far away, the sound of shells could be felt as well as heard. Muffled shrieks came from inside.

“Sometimes she screams, and I don’t know why,” Ms. Andriyenko said, referring to her daughter.

After the invasion, Ms. Andriyenko said, neighbors wrote her a note telling her that she and her daughter should leave.

“We stayed because we didn’t know where to go,” Ms. Andriyenko said. “We didn’t have any information.”

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Kadri Simson, the European commissioner for energy, and Deputy Prime Minister Jozef Sikela of the Czech Republic at a news conference after a European Union Energy Ministers meeting on high energy prices, in Brussels, on Friday.Credit…Yves Herman/Reuters

BRUSSELS — Energy ministers in the European Union agreed on Friday to tax the profits of energy companies as part of a set of emergency measures aimed at softening the impact of soaring energy prices on businesses and consumers.

Europe’s energy crisis, aggravated by Russia’s periodically cutting off parts of the bloc’s energy supply to punish it for supporting Ukraine, has led to historically high heating and electricity bills in the 27-member bloc.

Last month, tens of thousands of Europeans took to the streets in at least four countries — the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Belgium — to protest against spiraling energy prices and record inflation. With winter approaching, governments have been under mounting pressure to shield Europeans from blackouts and bankruptcy, while at the same time ensuring a continued energy flow from alternative suppliers.

The measures approved by the bloc’s energy ministers focused on taxing energy-company profits — the proceeds of which would be used to fund subsidies for struggling businesses and households — and a mandatory reduction in electricity consumption. But the ministers stopped short of introducing a cap on the price of gas — a more radical measure sought by several members of the bloc that proponents say would not just help consumers foot their energy bills, but would also bring those bills down.

“Today we have completed yet another part of the puzzle, but definitely not the last one,” Jozef Sikela, the energy minister from the Czech Republic who led the negotiations on the legislation, told reporters on Friday. “We are in an energy war with Russia, which also strongly affects our industry. Further and coordinated E.U. action is needed.”

The energy ministers gathered in Brussels on Friday agreed to a cap on revenues of nuclear and renewable energy suppliers at $180 per megawatt-hour, as well as a “solidarity” tax on fossil fuel companies. Together, the levied taxes are expected to bring around $140 billion, which would be channeled into subsidies. And for the first time in its history, the bloc mandated a politically sensitive reduction in energy consumption.

Those steps would have been inconceivable mere months ago, but winter is fast approaching. The urgency of the crisis was underscored this week when leaks were discovered in gas pipelines connecting Russia with Germany that European officials blamed on sabotage, highlighting the fragility of its infrastructure.

The measures approved on Friday do not go far enough for some E.U. nations. In a letter to the bloc’s executive arm earlier this week, energy ministers from 15 out of 27 member nations called for a general cap on the price of gas — which wealthier states such as Germany and the Netherlands oppose.

The cap on gas prices, they said in the letter to the commission, is “the one measure” to “mitigate the inflationary pressure, manage expectations and provide a framework in case of potential supply disruptions, and limit the extra profits in the sector.”

Some experts, however, have warned such a measure could backfire.

“Any intervention aimed at capping energy prices entails the risk of removing a key incentive — high prices — to reduce demand, making Europe worse off,” said Simone Tagliapietra of Bruegel, a Brussels-based economic research institution. “Europe needs to prepare for a new normal without Russian gas. Next spring, to get the 150 billion cubic meters of gas we need, we have to maximize imports from alternative supplies and keep demand lower.”

He added: “Any measure we adopt today should not compromise our ability to do that.”

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NA Proactive News Snapshot: Skye Bioscience, KULR Technology Group, Guardforce AI, Cloud DX, Cabral Gold, Todos Medical, Irwin Naturals, Evergen Infrastructure UPDATE… – Proactive Investors USA

Skye Bioscience Inc (OTCQB:SKYE) said its shareholders have voted in favor of all the proposals put forward at its special meeting held on September 30, including its proposed acquisition of Emerald Health Therapeutics Inc (CSE:EMH, OTCQX:EMHTF) (EHT). The company said it and EHT continued to work diligently toward the closing of the arrangement and planned to proceed with the closing as soon as practicable following the satisfaction of all remaining closing conditions. “We look forward to welcoming Emerald Health Therapeutics shareholders as new Skye stockholders as we continue on our path to develop our cannabinoid derivative drug candidates for important diseases with unmet needs,” commented Skye CEO Punit Dhillon after the meeting.

KULR Technology Group Inc (NYSE:KULR) is scheduled to participate at the following conferences in October 2022: UBS Future of Electric Mobility Virtual Conference on October 3; Ebike Future Conference & Expo between October 11 – 13; Gamma Technologies Technical Conference on October 11, at 9:40am ET; Battery Safety Summit, October 12, at 4:00pm ET; FAA’s Tenth Triennial International Fire and Cabin Safety Research Conference on October 19 at 11:00 a.m. ET; and Equip Expo 2022 between October 19 – 21.

Guardforce AI Co Ltd (NASDAQ:GFAI) said it has made significant progress transforming into an integrated artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics business to complement its established logistics segment during the first half of 2022. Highlights from the six months ended June 30, 2022, include a 253% growth in its robotic AI segment revenue compared to the same period in 2021, and the expansion of the company’s Robot-as-a-Service business to now operate in eight countries including China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Guardforce AI CEO Olivia Wang also spotlighted the company’s development progress made on the Guardforce AI Intelligent Cloud Platform (GFAI ICP).

Cloud DX (TSX-V:CDX, OTCQB:CDXFF), a provider of virtual care and remote patient monitoring solutions, announced the company’s attendance by invitation at the Opportunity Collaborative Impact 2022 (OC Impact) in the beautiful beach town of Michès, in the Dominican Republic. The North American disruptor in virtual care based in Kitchener, Ontario with a strong presence in Brooklyn, New York, said the three-day collaborative summit supports entrepreneurs with a mission to advance social impact initiatives. Awarded a prestigious 12-month OC Fellowship, Cloud DX (TSX-V:CDX, OTCQB:CDXFF) is one of nine XPRIZE Alumni in attendance, as part of the XPRIZE mission to advance technologies to benefit humanity.

Cabral Gold Inc (TSX-V:CBR) has announced an updated mineral resource estimate for its Cuiú Cuiú project in Brazil, which showed a total Indicated resource of 21.6 million tonnes (Mt), grading 0.87 grams per tonne (g/t) gold (604,000 ounces), along with a total Inferred resource of 19.8 Mt grading 0.84 g/t gold (534,500 ounces). The junior explorer said Cuiú Cuiú’s Indicated resource increased by 433,000 ounces, or 253%, from the previous estimate. “The new resource estimate is a testament to the integrity of the Cuiú Cuiú mineralization, with more than 50% of the total gold ounces in the Indicated category,” Cabral Gold CEO Alan Carter said in a statement.

Todos Medical Ltd has welcomed news it will be granted two patents covering its total biochemical infrared analysis (TBIA) fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) pan-cancer blood diagnostics platform. The notices, from the United States patent and trademark office (USPTO), cover applications entitled, firstly: ‘Infrared (IR) Spectroscopy System’, and secondly: ‘Infrared Analysis of Benign Tumors’. Todos noted that it has already received CE marks (covering the European Union (EU) for its TBIA blood diagnostic test in breast cancer and colon cancer.

Irwin Naturals Inc said it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase all of the issued and outstanding shares of Keta Media LLC (doing business as Ketamine Media), the nation’s leading growth platform for clinics offering ketamine-assisted therapy. Ketamine Media has established relationships with clinics in over 45 states and three countries, and connects providers and patients using a unique patient-centered approach, the company said. “While this transaction will contribute immediately to our profitability, this acquisition is driven predominantly by strategic considerations,” Irwin CEO Klee Irwin said in a statement.

Evergen Infrastructure Corp said it has partnered with Adelaide Capital, a leading investor relations and capital markets advisory firm, to provide investor relations and consulting services to the company. Adelaide will work closely with Evergen to develop and deploy a comprehensive capital markets program, which includes assisting with non-deal road shows, virtual campaigns, conferences and assisting with investor communication. The company will pay Adelaide a monthly fee of $10,000, in addition to 15,000 stock options at an exercise price of $2.75 per share for a three-year term, subject to the approval of the board of directors. “We are thrilled to be working with Adelaide Capital, who will provide us with a comprehensive investor relations platform and help strengthen our communication with current and prospective shareholders as we pursue our next leg of growth,” Evergen CEO Chase Edgelow said.

PowerTap Hydrogen Capital Corp said it was not able to finalize its annual financial statements and accompanying management’s discussion and analysis for the year ended June 30, 2022 for submission by September 28, 2022, the date required by Canadian securities laws, as a result of delays to its audit. The audit delay is due to enhanced quality controls undertaken by its auditors, staff turnover and the complexity of auditing certain transactions. PowerTap’s auditors, Smythe Ratcliffe LLP, have requested more time for partner and consultant review as part of the enhanced measures. The company has applied for, and has been granted, a management cease trade order (MCTO) by the British Columbia Securities Commission. PowerTap expects to file the annual filings on or before October 28, 2022 and will issue a news release announcing completion of the filings at such time. Until then, it will comply with the alternative information guidelines set out in National Policy 12-203 – Management Cease Trade Order for issuers who have failed to comply with a specified continuous disclosure requirement within the times prescribed by applicable securities laws. The guidelines, among other things, require the company to issue bi-weekly default status reports by way of a news release so long as the annual filings have not been filed. During the MCTO, investors will be able to continue trading in the company’s common shares. However, its CEO and CFO  will not be able to do so, it added.

OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX:OTCM) the operator of regulated markets for trading 12,000 US and international securities, has announced that Bravo Mining Corp, a Canada and Brazil based explorer, has qualified to trade on the OTCQX Best Market under the symbol ‘BRVMF’ , having upgraded from the Pink market. Luis Azevedo, CEO of Bravo Mining, said “Our Luanga project, located in the prolific Carajas Mineral Province in Brazil is an emerging Tier 1 Palladium + Platinum + Rhodium + Gold + Nickel deposit. As a newly-listed company in the TSX Venture and with an aggressive drilling plan underway, we felt important to begin trading in the OTCQX in order to increase accessibility to U.S.-based retail and institutional investors.” Upgrading to the OTCQX Market is an important step for companies seeking to provide transparent trading for their US investors. To qualify for OTCQX, companies must meet high financial standards, follow best practice corporate governance and demonstrate compliance with applicable securities laws.

Skyharbour Resources Ltd, a Canadian uranium explorer, has qualified to trade on the OTCQX Best Market, upgrading from the OTCQB Venture Market, said OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX:OTCM) The company begins trading on the OTCQX on Friday under the ticker symbol “SYHBF.” Skyharbour CEO and president Jordan Trimble commented: “Upgrading to OTCQX provides American investors with greater accessibility to trading the company’s common shares and gives the company a much more robust potential shareholder and capital base.”

OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX:OTCM) the operator of regulated markets for trading 12,000 US and international securities, has announced that Superior Gold Inc, a Canadian-based gold producer, has qualified to trade on the OTCQX Best Market under the symbol ‘SUPGF’, having upgraded from the Pink market. “We are excited to begin trading on the OTCQX Market and are working on DTC eligibility which we hope to achieve shortly, making it easier for US investors to trade Superior Gold stock,” said Chris Jordaan, CEO of Superior Gold. “Superior gold continues to focus on advancing to intermediate gold producer status through targeted growth and the delivery of key objectives designed to improve tonnage throughput, head grade, and overall gold production. We are also targeting lower AISC costs with increased production offsetting our fixed costs. The company has a growing mineral resource endowment and additional milling capability available. Superior Gold offers investors growth in the near and longer term,” he added. Upgrading to the OTCQX Market is an important step for companies seeking to provide transparent trading for their US investors. To qualify for OTCQX, companies must meet high financial standards, follow best practice corporate governance and demonstrate compliance with applicable securities laws.

Deep-South Resources Inc (TSX-V:DSM) has closed a non-brokered private placement worth $392,000 to fund exploration of its projects in Zambia, the company announced. The offering comprised more than 7.8 million units, each containing one share and half a shar purchase warrant, for a price of $0.05 each. Whole warrants entitle their holder to purchase additional shares at a price of $0.10 for a period of three years. The proceeds will also be used for general working capital, the company said.

Magna Mining Inc (TSX-V:NICU) said it has closed its previously-announced non-brokered private placement, raising gross proceeds of $20,014,792.20 after issuing 74,128,860 subscription receipts at $0.27 each. The gross proceeds from the sale will be held in escrow by Computershare Trust Company of Canada, as subscription receipt agent, and released to the company when certain conditions are met, including the satisfaction of all conditions precedent to the closing of Magna Mining’s acquisition of Lonmin Canada Inc. When the escrow release conditions are met, and without the payment of any additional consideration, each subscription receipt will entitle the holder to one common share of the company and one-half of one common share purchase warrant, with each warrant entitling the holder to purchase one additional share at $0.405 each for a period of three years following the date of issue of the warrants.

Australis Capital Inc (CSE:AUSA, OTCQB:AUSAF) said it had pushed back the release date for its 2022 annual audited financial statements to Oct. 14, and its 1Q 2023 financials on or before Oct. 21, 2022. Pursuant to the MCTO, the chief executive officer and the chief financial officer may not trade in securities of the company until such time as the company files its annual audited financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2022, including the related management’s discussion and analysis, and related certifications and the executive director of the BCSC revokes the MCTO. The MCTO does not affect the ability of shareholders to trade their securities.

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