Florida shooting: Thousands attend vigil to mourn 17 victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

Miami: Thousands attended a vigil to mourn the 17 victims who were slaughtered by a 19-year-old former student at a high school in Florida which had ousted him for indiscipline.

Nikolas Cruz carried out one of the worst mass shootings in US history at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Wednesday, reports Efe news.

A woman holds a placard during a candlelight vigil for victims of shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Reuters

The mourners, who gathered at the Pine Trails Park, Parkland, on Thursday evening were moved to tears when the father of a 14-year-old girl, Jamie Guttenberg, one of the victims, spoke about her.

"Jamie was the light of the party," he said, adding that after he lost his brother to cancer last year he thought the pain was unbearable but what he has experienced since he lost his daughter was infinitely worse.

He regretted that he did not say goodbye to his daughter when she left for school that morning and urged parents to hug and kiss their children every day and to tell them they love them.

Next to him on the stage, authorities and religious leaders appealed for unity in the face of this tremendous tragedy.

During the vigil, the mourners laid flowers and lit candles near pictures of the 17 victims and wrote messages of sympathy, support and hope.

There were also messages condemning the National Rifle Association, the powerful arms lobby in the country that is opposed to greater gun regulation in the country.

People held up posters that said "Enough is enough" and "NRA stop killing our children."

Cruz had escaped after the bloodbath but was caught an hour later in the neighbouring Coral Spring city and charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Wednesday's shooting comes a year and half after a mass shooting in gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, also in Florida, that had killed 49.

Donald Trump unable to declassify Democrats' memo on abuse of surveillance powers by his govt, says White House

Washington: Citing national security concerns, the White House has formally notified the House intelligence committee that President Donald Trump is "unable" to declassify a memo drafted by Democrats that counters GOP allegations about abuse of government surveillance powers in the FBI's Russia probe.

White House counsel Don McGahn said in a letter to the committee that the memo contains "numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages" and asked the Democrats to revise the memo with the help of the Justice Department. He said Trump is still "inclined" to release the memo in the interest of transparency if revisions are made.

File image of United States president Donald Trump. Reuters

The president's rejection of the Democratic memo is in contrast to his enthusiastic embrace of releasing the Republican document, which he pledged before reading to make public. The president declassified the document last week, allowing its publication in full.

The president has said the GOP memo "vindicates" him in the ongoing Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. But congressional Democrats and Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, who helped draft the GOP memo, have said it shouldn't be used to undermine the special counsel.

On Friday, White House spokesman Raj Shah said Trump discussed the Democratic document with the White House counsel's office, FBI Director Christopher Wray and another top Justice Department official.

The president had until Saturday to decide whether to allow the classified material to become public after the House intelligence committee voted Monday to release it.

In declining to declassify the document, the White House also sent lawmakers a letter signed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Wray, as well as a marked-up copy of the memo, laying out portions it considers too sensitive to make public.

Among those passages are some that the Justice Departments says could compromise intelligence sources and methods, ongoing investigations and national security if disclosed.

The document in question was authored by Democrats on the intelligence panel. They say it disputes many claims in the GOP memo, which accused the FBI and Justice Department of abusing their surveillance powers in obtaining a secret warrant to monitor former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page.

The memo's release would have capped off a week in which Republicans and Democrats on the committee have publicly fought, with the panel now erecting a wall to separate feuding Republican and Democratic staffers who had long sat side by side.

US Senate passes spending bill to end government shutdown; House of Representatives to vote next

The United States Senate passed a critical stopgap spending bill in the early hours of Friday morning after an hours-long delay forced Congress to miss a midnight deadline and sent the government tumbling into a shutdown.

The bipartisan measure, which passed 71 to 28, is now headed to the House of Representatives for what is expected to be a pre-dawn vote on Friday, as congressional leaders scrambled to restrict the second government shutdown in three weeks to just a matter of hours.

US Capitol building in Washington. Reuters

But the fate of the bill remained uncertain in the lower chamber of Congress, where fiscal conservatives have bridled at excessive spending allowed under the budget deal, and with liberals complaining that it does nothing to shield many undocumented immigrants from deportation, a longstanding Democratic priority, reported AFP.

ABC News reported that the government shutdown could just last hours and cause minimal disruption if the House follows suit and also passes the two-year budget package, which includes funding to keep the government running through to 23 March.

If the house does not, the result would be an actual shutdown, the second of 2018, after a three-day shutdown in January.

The Senate vote was delayed when one remaining senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, held up the vote when he demanded a debate in the chamber on his amendment to maintain spending caps.

Paul, angered at the huge spending increases at the centre of the deal, delayed passage for hours with a demand to vote on an amendment that would keep in place strict caps on spending that the deal would raise.

"The reason I'm here tonight is to put people on the spot. I want people to feel uncomfortable. I want them to have to answer people at home who said, 'How come you were against Barack Obama's deficits and then how come you're for Republican deficits?" he asked.

As midnight approached, Paul did not relent, bemoaning from the Senate floor what he saw as out-of-control government spending and repeatedly rebuffing attempts by his fellow senators to move ahead with a vote.

The bill would raise military and domestic spending by almost $300 billion over the next two years. With no offsets in the form of other spending cuts or new tax revenues, that additional spending would be financed by borrowed money.

Markets uneasy

The shutdown in Washington came at a sensitive time for financial markets. Stocks plunged on Thursday in New York on heavy volume, throwing off course a nearly nine-year bull run. The S&P 500 slumped 3.8 percent.

Markets barely flinched at the last shutdown in January, but that was before a dizzying selloff that started on 30 January amid concerns about inflation and higher interest rates, according to Reuters.

Uneasiness in the markets could be partially reduced by another part of the Senate bill, which would extend the federal debt ceiling to March 2019, preventing further confrontations over that volatile issue in Congress for more than a year.

With inputs from agencies

Donald Trump wants a military parade in Washington: US set to join France, Russia and China with show of strength

Donald Trump, that most Russian of all US presidents (allegedly), has a new idea, one which seems straight out of a closed door meeting at the Kremlin during the height of the Cold War: Holding a military parade to showcase the armed forces' muscle, and to underscore his role as commander-in-chief.

Trump, who has toyed with the idea of a parade in Washington since before being sworn in, made this request to top brass, media reports said. And flaunting American muscle seems like a good fit, given the fact that the US spends more on its military than the next 19 biggest spending countries put together do.

Sources told The Washington Post that it's "being worked at the highest levels of the military", and a White House official has confirmed that is being planned. Memorial Day on 28 May, American Independence Day on 4 July, and Veterans' Day on 11 November, are likely to be the days officials are considering, with the latter being preferred given its association with World War I and because it has less to do with politics and Trump.

French president Emmanuel Macron and US president Donald Trump at the Bastille Day military parade in Paris. AP

The genesis for Trump's grand plans seems to have been France's Bastille Day celebrations in September last year, where he was invited as a special guest. "It was one of the greatest parades I've ever seen. It was two hours on the button, and it was military might, and I think a tremendous thing for France and for the spirit of France," Trump is believed to have told French president Emmanuel Macron in the aftermath of the celebrations.

But then came the kicker: He had to top it. Because be it a nuclear button or be it a military parade, Trump is determined to ensure the US will have the world's biggest. "We're going to have to try and top it," CNN quoted Trump as telling Macron. "But I came back (from France), and one of my early calls were, I think we're going to have to start looking at that ourselves. So we're actually thinking about 4 July, Pennsylvania Avenue, having a really great parade to show our military strength."

But it might be easier said than done. Military parades aren't very common in the US, one reason being they don't come cheap. The cost of shipping Abrams tanks and high-tech hardware to Washington could run into millions of dollars, The Washington Post reported in a separate copy, and military officials said it was unclear how they would pay for it.

Holding it in Washington DC would pose separate problems as well, with the Council of DC, the district's legislature, not appearing too keen on the plan.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent Republican voice on defence matters, said he favoured highlighting the country's armed forces, but not its weaponry. "I think a parade showcasing the military and the sacrifices they make for the country would be appropriate, it would be a way to say thank you, but I'm not interested in a military hardware display. That would be cheesy and project weakness," Graham told reporters on Wednesday.

Washington has been a Democratic stronghold, and voted overwhelmingly against Trump in 2016's presidential elections. "A military parade in DC would shut down the nation's capital and waste taxpayer dollars just to feed Trump's ego," said Eleanor Holmes Norton, a non-voting delegate to the US Congress for the District of Columbia.

Washington mayor Muriel Bowser's spokeswoman said the district had no formal request for a parade, but "just like the wall, he will have to pay for it", a reference to Trump's plan to build a wall on the US-Mexico border and have Mexico pay for it. The Mexican government has insisted it will not do so.

But while the city could take symbolic measures to oppose the parade, it has little power to dictate what the Pentagon and the federal government do. "The reality is that we can't stop the president from marching," David Grosso, Washington DC council member, said.

Military parades around the world

The idea of holding elaborate parades that showcase a country's military might is a Soviet-era tradition, and most of the countries that hold large-scale parades today are heavily militarised countries or those under authoritarian dictatorships. A few of these include:

North Korea: If Trump felt insecure about France's Bastille Day celebrations, he won't be happy to know North Korea, Public Enemy No 1 at the White House, also held a military parade in Pyongyang on Thursday. This move comes ahead of the Winter Olympics to take place in South Korea.

About 13,000 troops participated while 50,000 spectators watched the event, Bloombergquoted the Yonhap news agency as saying. And though images and videos from the parade weren't broadcast live, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is expected to have showed off his latest military hardware. Footage from the parade may be broadcast at a later date.

China: China's military parades have become larger and grander since Xi Jinping ascended to the presidency in 2012. Beijing's parade last year included 12,000 troops, tanks, missile launchers and other military vehicles. Aircraft, including H-6K bombers which had been patrolling near Taiwan and Japan, the J-15 carrier-based fighters, and new generation J-20 stealth fighters, were also on display.

The parade, ostensibly meant to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), turned into a public spectacle for China to flex its muscle before the world, and show just why the PLA is considered the world's largest armed forces. It was the first time China marked its Army Day, which falls on 1 August, with a military parade since the 1949 Communist revolution.

Russia: Russia observes 9 May as 'Victory Day', to mark the anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany in World War II, and modern day Russia's most important annual holiday. Russian marines, arctic vehicles and artillery were all on show on 9 May, as well as historic T-34 tanks that were influential on World War II battlefields.

A number of missile launchers also trundled across Red Square, as well as a fly-past by military aircraft and display teams. And when weather threatened to play spoilsport, the defence ministry said cloud-seeding planes would be deployed to disperse the overcast skies above Moscow, The Independent reported.

France: Among western democracies, the only country which diligently follows a military parade every year is France, which deploys thousands of armed forces personnel marching on 14 July every year in Paris, while smaller parades are also held in French towns of Marseille and Toulon.

Bastille Day, marked to celebrate the anniversary of the end of monarchy in France and the establishment of democracy, is celebrated in France with a show of military might, with the French motto of 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity'. It's the oldest military parade in the world, running continuously for over 120 years. The first one taking place in 1880.

Published Date: Feb 08, 2018 16:19 PM | Updated Date: Feb 08, 2018 16:19 PM

Afghanistan's ordeal: Will terror-hit country realise its economic potential or fall prey again to geo-political machinations?

Things changed forever for Afghanistan in 1979 when the first Soviet troops entered through the then Tajik SSR (now Tajikistan). For the next decade, Afghanistan became the battleground for a proxy war between the Soviet Union and the United States. In the end, the Soviets experienced their “Vietnam”, but not before the Cold War rivalry ravaged millions of lives.

But for the men and women of Afghanistan, the misery didn't end. With a weak central government, anarchy ruled the mid-90s until the Taliban took power in 1996. It took another invasion, this time by the US-led NATO forces, in the aftermath of the 9/11, to overthrow them. But, fast forward to 2018: Suicide attacks and car bombings haunt the country.

Afghanistan was a major topic of discussion at the recently-concluded Raisina Dialogue 2018 in New Delhi. And rightfully so. Strategically located at the crossroads of South and Central Asia, Afghanistan’s stability is of paramount importance for all players involved in the region: US, India, Pakistan, Russia, Iran and China.

The problem of terrorism

Kabul has recently been rocked by multiple attacks. The recent uptick in such incidents, especially in urban centres, is alarming. Speaking with Firstpost on the condition of anonymity, a member of the Afghan administration said: “The Taliban is still prominent. The attacks are only rising as they have realised that the NATO troops will increase, and that the coalition may not leave Afghanistan.”

In August 2017, US president Donald Trump announced a troop increase in Afghanistan. That process was completed in November. While Taliban remains the obvious threat, the rise of the Islamic State is a worrying trend. For a country already facing religious extremism, this added another dimension to the ongoing War on Terror.

There is a growing threat of Taliban and Islamic State derailing Afghanistan's promising growth story. AP

The official added, “We are not studying the Islamic State. We are not focusing on how we can get rid of them. We have been relying on US military to eliminate them.”

US vital to Afghanistan’s stability

While the unnamed official was supportive of the United States' presence in Afghanistan, former president Hamid Karzai, a panelist for one of the Raisina sessions, criticised the US for failing to stop the rise of the Islamic State.

But Karzai’s rather “mild rap” betrayed the fact that any debate on Afghanistan’s present or future was incomplete without accounting for the United States. Speaking at the dialogue, Karzai urged the Americans to continue helping to rebuild Afghanistan.

However, the relationship between Kabul and Washington is at best complex, thanks to the US’ historic ties with Pakistan (an adversary of Afghanistan). Karzai narrated an interesting story to describe the Afghan-Pakistan-US quandary,

“As the president, I once met several US senators and informed them about the terror sanctuaries in Pakistan. Then suddenly, one of them told me that Pakistan is 50 times more important to the US than Afghanistan.”

However, speaking to Firstpost, veteran diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad, who served as US envoy to Afghanistan between 2003 and 2005, said the US will continue to thwart Pakistan's designs on Afghanistan.

“Since 9/11, we have been fighting against Pakistan’s plans for the Afghans. Apart from a military strategy, we have also used positive incentives to discourage Pakistan from targeting Afghanistan. We also brought Karzai and (Pervez) Musharraf to the table,” he said.

The “Pakistani plans” that Khalilzad alluded to may be Islamabad’s policy of “strategic depth”, which sought to make Afghanistan a “client state”.

Pakistan has also been successful in playing a double game by supporting the Taliban through the Haqqani Network.

But does Trump’s New Year’s Day tweet, which condemned Pakistan for providing sanctuary to terrorists and warned of cutting aid, offer new hope to 34 million Afghans?

While Trump's tweet might have given some hope to Afghan watchers, past precedent of Pakistani involvement in terrorism (Read sheltering Osama bin Laden) has not deterred Washington from continuing its partnership with Islamabad.

“We have been deceived by Pakistan in the past. This must change. We need to convince them to change. If that does not happen, there are a number of steps we can take including freezing of security assistance,” said Khalilzad.

While Karzai complained about nuances of American policy, he was vocal in backing the US-led West to stay in Afghanistan.

“I am a pro-American person. We invited the US-led NATO because we believed in their ideology of freedom and democracy. We definitely need the US to stay in Afghanistan as our 'strategic partner.'”

'India is like a friend to Afghanistan'

India has pumped in more than $3.1 billion since the fall of the Taliban regime. Several Indian companies have showed interest in the untapped sectors of the Afghan economy, while the two air corridors connecting Kabul to Delhi and Mumbai as well as the opening of the Chabahar Port will boost bilateral trade.

India’s involvement with Afghanistan strengthened in September 2017, when it agreed to jointly work on 116 new "high impact" development projects in 31 provinces of Afghanistan.

In terms of optics, India has ticked all the right boxes. The inauguration of the Salma Dam and the Afghan Parliament, both built with Indian funds, as well as several showcases of soft power have created goodwill for India.

“India is like a friend to Afghanistan,” said the unnamed Afghan official when asked if Afghans perceived New Delhi acting like “big brother”. “A brother will dictate you… don’t do this and that, which is not the case with India.”

China, India’s geo-political rival, is another notable player. China’s humanitarian contribution may well be below that of India. But Beijing, betting on Kabul’s strategic location and untapped market and emerged as the biggest foreign investor after 2014. “One cannot deny the fact that China is a huge reality in Afghanistan and it is here to stay,” Karzai said. ​

The biggest player in Afghanistan is undoubtedly the United States, which along with its NATO and non-NATO allies, contributes the largest chunk to the global humanitarian aid, and therefore holds considerable influence. With reports of over $3 trillion worth of untapped mineral resources lying under the Afghan land — a discovery attributed to the United States — Washington isn't going anywhere, at least in the near future.

In 2014, the US-led forces formally handed over security responsibilities to the Afghan forces.

The economic opening up of Afghanistan may turn out to be the much-needed boost to fight terrorism and instability. Better economic integration may help Afghanistan shed the unwanted tag of being the biggest producer of opium and contribute positively to the global economy.

As External Affairs Minister VK Singh noted, “Afghanistan will be in trouble till the time there is no free flow of goods and services. This will improve the economy and integrate it to the rest of the world.”

Will history repeat itself?

History bears witness to Afghanistan’s strategic advantage being exploited by global powers even as it repeatedly falls prey to geo-political machinations.

In the 21st Century, the story of Afghanistan may lie somewhere between the larger tale of US decline and China’s ascendance as a dominant power in international affairs.

China, for its part, is outlining its global agenda through the One Belt One Road initiative (OBOR) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). While Afghanistan is still not officially involvedin the two projects, media reports claim that the Afghan government is willing to participate.

Afghanistan’s unexplored resources may quench China’s growing energy needs and its location can help it transform into a transport hub connecting South and Central Asia. However, that's easier said than done.

China’s rise clashes with Trump’s new policy for Afghanistan, which envisions a greater role for India. Which could result in two scenarios: China, the US, India and to an extent Russia, cooperating in the interest of Afghanistan’s long-term stability. Or another superpower rivalry in our backyard, not necessarily involving guns, but yet again undermining Afghanistan’s sovereignty.

Democratic leadership accuses US president Donald Trump of being soft on China

Washington: Top Democratic leadership in the US on Wednesday accused President Donald Trump of being soft on China and its "trade abuses", saying he failed to fulfil his poll promises and commitments to working Americans.

File image of US president Donald Trump. AP

"President Trump – in his campaign, won a lot of votes — promised over and over again that he would crack down on China's mercantilism, but once in office, unfortunately like so many other of his promises and commitments to working Americans, he has not done it," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor.

Schumer alleged that Trump has delayed trade enforcement against China.

"Even the studies he has commissioned have been delayed," he rued.

"We need to get serious about these flagrant trade abuses before it is too late. Middle-class jobs and bedrock American industries are at stake," he said.

A day earlier, The New York Times reported that one of the fastest growing Chinese car companies is plotting ways to sell their cars in America.

According to the NYT, by pursuing a partnership with Fiat Chrysler, Chinese state-owned company GAC Automobiles hoped to enter the US market through a backdoor.

It would be the first Chinese carmaker to sell in the US.

"If they were to do so, they’d face a 2.5 per cent tariff here in the United States. Meanwhile, if a US automaker sold its cars in China, it would face a 25 per cent tariff – ten times higher — and would have to compete with state-owned businesses and unfair regulations,” Schumer said.

"So, while China prevents US automakers from gaining a foothold in their country with prohibitive tariffs, what the times called 'the highest trade barriers by far of any major car market', they are plotting ways to eat into our market," he said.

"It's manifestly unfair, and a typically unfortunate example of China’s rapacious trading policies," Schumer said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday held telephone talks with Trump to resume a suspended dialogue programme aimed at improving bilateral economic ties, amid tensions over their huge trade imbalance.

The phone call between the two leaders came as the Trump administration threatened tough action against China including punitive tariffs, sanctions and even a trade war.

Iran nuclear deal must be protected: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has stressed the importance of an international deal on Iran's nuclear issue on the second anniversary of the implementation of the agreement.

File image of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Reuters

"The secretary-general remains convinced that the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) is the best way to ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program and to realise the promised tangible economic benefits for the Iranian people," said Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a statement on Wednesday, Xinhua reported.

JCPOA refers to the Iran nuclear deal reached in Vienna in July 2015 between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

"The JCPOA constitutes a major achievement of nuclear non-proliferation and diplomacy, and has contributed to regional and international peace and security," said the statement.

The secretary-general noted that UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has repeatedly confirmed that Iran is fulfilling its nuclear-related commitments under the deal, it said.

US President Donald Trump, last week on Friday, waived nuclear sanctions against Iran, but warned that he would not do it again unless the deal is to be fixed. Tehran has said it will not renegotiate the nuclear deal.

Under the agreement, Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.

US will maintain presence in Syria for 'foreseeable future' to prevent Islamic State's resurgence, says Rex Tillerson

Palo Alto: Secretary of state Rex Tillerson has signaled deeper US commitment to Syria, saying America would maintain its military presence there to prevent an Islamic State resurgence. He said the US also would push for broader political changes in the Middle East country.

Speaking at Stanford University on Tuesday after being introduced by former top diplomat Condoleezza Rice, Tillerson said the Trump administration was determined not to repeat President Barack Obama's "mistake", when he withdrew US troops from Iraq in 2011.

Republicans for years have argued the withdrawal created the opening for Islamic State's rapid expansion.

Instead, Tillerson stressed that US forces would remain in Syria for the foreseeable future as President Donald Trump and his aides implement a new strategy to stabilise Syria, where a civil war has killed as many as a half-million people and created millions of refugees since 2011.

File image of Rex Tillerson. Reuters

There are currently some 2,000 US troops in Syria, mainly training local forces to root out remaining extremist strongholds. "Let us be clear, the US will maintain a military presence in Syria focused on ensuring Islamic State cannot re-emerge," Tillerson said.

Recounting what he said went wrong in Iraq, Tillerson said, "We cannot allow history to repeat itself in Syria. Islamic State presently has one foot in the grave and by maintaining an American military presence in Syria until the full and complete defeat of Islamic State is achieved, it will soon have two."

Beyond counter-terrorism, though, Tillerson outlined a much broader mission for US forces in Syria than when Trump first entered office with an almost singular focus on defeating terrorists.

Alongside defeating Islamic State and Al-Qaida, Tillerson cited several long shot propositions as American goals: Securing a
successful UN peace process, getting Syrian president Bashar Assad to leave power, ridding Syria of Iran's influence and eradicating all weapons of mass destruction in the country.

Backed by Russia and Iran, Assad has reasserted control over much of Syria. And Republicans and Democrats in the US have grown worried that both of Assad's allies are now entrenched in the country, with Iran in particular posing an immediate threat to neighboring Israel.

Military leaders, meanwhile, worry that Assad's inability to quell local unrest will mean that Islamic State or another such formation is likely to reappear in the future.

Tillerson illustrated how the US would continue trying to isolate Assad's government even as the US objective is "stabilisation". Washington won't allow international reconstruction aid to flow to any part of Syria under Assad's control, he said.

It will discourage countries from trading with his government. "Instead, we will encourage international assistance to rebuild areas the global coalition and its local partners have liberated," Tillerson said, suggesting such an approach might pressure Assad to resign.

"Once Assad is gone from power, the US will gladly encourage the normalisation of economic relationships between Syria and other nations," he said.

More immediate, Tillerson called for Russia to continue working with the US on a "de-escalation" area in southwest Syria and stick to commitments to a UN-led peace process. The UN mediation has languished for years without any progress and fighting between Assad's military and rebel groups persists.

In Syria, the United States also is contending with disagreements with close partner Turkey. The NATO ally is fiercely opposed to an expanded training program for Kurdish and Arab border guards in Syria. It sees the Kurdish forces working with the US as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey.