Author Topic: Achkaerin News Service  (Read 72019 times)

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Re: Achkaerin News Service
« Reply #180 on: October 10, 2021, 01:30:03 PM »


RIVIERE & AADC TAKE PHOENIX PROGRAM TO NEXT STAGE


By Kimberly Thorn: Science and Technology Correspondent

Riviere Corporation's Phoenix Program has been reported on many times and is probably one of the best documented aerospace programs presently ongoing. The program's aim is to develop a solar powered aircraft capable of filling the same role as the passenger aircraft of today, over the years of the program's existence there have been solar powered drones and small manned aircraft each testing the theory of solar powered flight on a larger, more challenging scale in the past the program has flown a solar powered craft around the world. Today's advancement of the program sees the first foray into what the final vision is expected to look like, however it isn't solely a solar powered airliner, while that remains the goal this first aircraft is to be a hybrid model, using conventional power sources and solar energy. Speaking in a press conference following the announcement Riviere Corporation CEO Catriona Rowan said "We've been eagerly looking forward to this for a long time, we know our theory works on the small scale, we've proven it, we now need to see if it works when we scale it up, we can't jump straight to pure solar power we're still a ways off that, what we're doing with this development is we're testing our theory on that scale but in a controlled manner using a hybrid model as the safety net, we're not attempting to fire the engines with solar energy we're using electrical power to fuel the onboard systems and using the solar panels to recharge those batteries while the plane is in the air."


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Re: Achkaerin News Service
« Reply #181 on: October 24, 2021, 06:47:25 PM »


JOCELYN OF RHODES UNRAVELED


a painting of Jocelyn of Rhodes, credited to a member of the Knights Hospitalier

By Roisin Shaughnessy: Chief Correspondent

Jocelyn of Rhodes is a giant of Mundus history, a woman with a great number of deeds to her name and someone who played a significant part in the founding of Seaforth, however unlike many of her contemporaries very little is known of her life before the 1130's, this lack of knowledge has led to many theories about her earlier years including that she was a peasant farm girl, a nun initiate or a sailor but now archaeologist Melanie Bell and her team have unraveled this mystery as explained by Miss Bell herself:

"When Princess Harper of Seaforth contracted us to look into the Isle of Rhodes we were expecting to be spending plenty of time scouring the oceans for a long forgotten island, we weren't expecting to find it hidden in plain sight. For a long time it's been assumed or believed that this island was out near the Illumic or the Mhorish, now maybe the Illumic could make sense after all travel to Vanora during the crusades era would require way points if going by sea but there have always been issues with these ideas. Rather than pursue existing theories at first we started with a blank canvas and a very big net. This search threw up extracts written by Paul the Explorer that placed Paul and his wife Anezaki Ayanami in Vanora at the time of the Blood Libel in 1135, the same writings also mentioned the name Jocelyn and the rescue and protection of Jewish people from the slaughter being carried out by some knightly orders, and so the picture of the siege of the Isle of Rhodes took shape we had the knights hospitalier and as we discovered the knights of St James defending against an army of knights led by the knights templar, rather than the likely expected showdown of the era we had what modern militaries might refer to as blue on blue. But more significantly we found the island, and we found it right under our noses, the modern city of Caesarea built on the ruins of the old, the modern city technically sat on an island with fields of roses around it. And it was these fields that set us thinking, very little was known about Jocelyn because her name derives from the island, a language expert told us that Rhodes means Rose, so Island of Rhodes became Island of Rose.

That probably sounds like job done, we were asked to find the island and we found it, but we're archaeologists and we still had a few questions we wanted to figure out, basically the more we delved into the Isle of Rhodes the more questions about Jocelyn were raised, given the translation of Rhodes to Rose we took a leap and queried what Jocelyn meant and were told it meant chief, lord, knight or something similar. This hunch was our breakthrough, Knight of the Rose is a phrase we know but not used to describe Jocelyn, it's a phrase written by Paul the Explorer when he describes his first impressions of Anezaki on Luna Isle, there's a famous sketch that goes with this also titled that and this raised a question given the timelines and events, being able to put both of them in the same places at the same time - what if Jocelyn of Rhodes and Anezaki Ayanami were the same person? We looked into it, carrying out analysis of the Sword of Somerset and also DNA tests and we can now confirm that they were the same person. Which helps scholars who study Paul answer a few questions of their own because we now have a date of death for Anezaki in 1142, this makes Paul and Anezaki the parents of Siobhan Rhodes who is the next Rhodes we see in history. It's been another weird one, I'm not quite sure how or why we attract the interesting mysteries but we enjoy them."
« Last Edit: October 24, 2021, 06:59:43 PM by Achkaerin »

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Re: Achkaerin News Service
« Reply #182 on: November 19, 2021, 08:15:56 PM »


WORLD CUP FEVER


By Nick Watson: Sports Correspondent

With the Football World Cup about to get underway in Vinitsia anticipation among football fans are flocking to the Albion nation to see their country's players take to the field. This years event sees not only the mens world cup occur but the womens as well. Achkaerin's women's team known as the Vixens (pictured above) finished warming up for the tournament with a 4-0 victory in a friendly with the Allied States of Ardia, following earlier victories against Nueva Ardia and Toshikawa. The Vixen's fly to Vinitisia in good spirit's and are led by head coach Scarlet Hayes for who this will be her first tournament as head coach. On the men's side the Fox's will go for their fifth world crown this time around, the team's head coach Dame Julia McCabe spoke as the team arrived in  "We know we're a good team and we know we're tough to beat, we're going to give our best to play our game the way we've always played."

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Re: Achkaerin News Service
« Reply #183 on: December 25, 2021, 04:22:20 AM »


EMPEROR'S LIFE DAY MESSAGE


By Roisin Shaughnessy: Chief Correspondent

Achkaerin has once again celebrated Life Day[1], a day when the nation celebrates the coming of its Trinity of Goddesses. In his traditional Life Day Message, broadcast in the middle of the afternoon although recorded on Life Day Eve the Emperor said the following:

"Good afternoon and a happy Life Day to you all.

This time of year is a time of celebration for many of us regardless of faith for the Namists it is Life Day, for the Christians it is Christmas, for the Odinists it is Yule. It is the twilight days of one year and the approaching dawn of the next. This is a moment to spend time with friends and family and to look back as well as forwards, to remember the good and the bad, the joy and the sorrow, a time to celebrate, a time to laugh, a time to eat, drink and play a lot of games.

This year began in much the same way as the previous one ended with Yellowtongue and the winding down of operations in Clysperis being primary themes at that time. The actions of nations in both taking appropriate preventative actions and then the scientific cooperation with each other enabled containment and vaccination against it. They are some of the moments this year that remind of us of what can be achieved when people come together and work together. Another moment, one that will live long in the memory is that was the year that we bid farewell to nuclear weapons, a journey begun some years ago ending with the most destructive weapons ever seen removed from existence. In the arena of international relations this has been a year where more has occurred around our neighbourhood of the Northern Ocean than abroad, we've signed several bi-lateral treaties with our fellow Northern Ocean nations and we've got a developing relationship with Clysperis, a relationship brought to fruition we might say by Pharaoh Akasha and my daughter but one conceived of by the previous Pharaoh Rameses V. Most recently we've seen nations turn their eyes back to the stars and seek to discover what is out there. Like many I will watch with interest to see what the future in that field holds, where will the next journey's into that great unknown take us? What will we see that astonishes us, that moves us? What will the next steps of our journey be? Let them be bold, let them be courageous, let them be full of hope, let them be ones of daring, ones of dreams to bring us all to a future that we never believed possible.

Closer to home it's been quite the year for my family, my granddaughter Astrid started school with a first day that won't be soon forgotten, my daughter and I underwent surgery to assist us following our injuries, and it's interesting to now be ambidextrous and we'd both like to thank the fine and pioneering team of surgeons that carried this out. I wish you all the blessings of the season."
 1. OOC Note - Life Day occurs on 25th December

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Re: Achkaerin News Service
« Reply #184 on: January 03, 2022, 04:00:01 AM »


CEO AND HIGH PRIESTESS ON CLONING


(left) Catriona Rowan, CEO of Riviere Corporation and (right) Alexis Minette, High Priestess of the Cult of Namis

By Roisin Shaughnessy: Chief Correspondent

Her Holiness High Priestess Alexis Minette, of the Cult of Namis, visited Riviere Corporation today. The visit follows reports in Heyran press on the FPA and more recently an apparent DNA market, all to do with sustainability of the Heyran population, why is such a thing of interest? Mention of the word cloning, the High Priestess was shown around by Riviere Corporation CEO Catriona Rowan who showed Her Holiness the Corporations work in this field, following the tour Ms Rowan explained the scientific viewpoint and implications saying:

"It's important to separate what Heyran companies have done and are doing out from what may be interpreted because there's a scale to be aware of. Pre-existing Heyran program's used IVF as a basis but as Professor Dahl remarks in a lecture, there were limitations to the original proposed approach particularly around the size of the gene pool and the ramifications thereof, now it appears that Heyran law is expanding that gene pool which is a good thing because it should wind back Professor Dahl's ticking time bomb, but we're still talking about IVF which is an accepted medical practice and can be found and undergone in the vast majority of nations on Mundus and isn't viewed in a controversial way by most people, scientifically IVF was one of the most significant breakthrough moments. So there's nothing wrong with what the companies have previously done but it's when we go to the next step that things get iffy.

Genetic manipulation is where we begin to get into murky territory, the appropriate term in the context is 'designer babies' now those are two words that many a debate in this area has seen before, what we're talking about here is manipulating the DNA of the fetus so let's say you want to change the hair or eye colour - seems harmless right? And yeah I can see that, after all there's logic to that argument I can see how parents from a lower strata in Hassfurt would find this idea appealing, the chance to change the child's fate to open up their future chances by manipulating the DNA to give them blonde hair and blue eyes thereby making them an Ermwhal and I don't hold that against anyone. But this is a very slippery slope because if you can manipulate aesthetics what about other things like illnesses, mental disorders and so on? Again this sounds innocent and reasonable and arguably it is, but this is the point where hard questions are going to start to be asked not just scientifically, but ethically, morally, legally - starting with the legal side you would have to first classify the various conditions which may seem like common sense but here's where things get troublesome, take autism for example how are you going to classify that? It's a spectrum of many different conditions we might say so classifying each individually seems the reasoned conclusion but let's take Aspergers Syndrome, two things to consider there firstly most laws are mistaken in classifying it as a mental disorder when it is in fact a specific learning difficulty, the second is that no two people with it are affected in exactly the same way so there's no way of knowing how it will effect that person at the time any genetic manipulation would take place, and this is where questions around ethics and morals come in, you're changing a persons genetic makeup, if you're changing anything around their mentality especially you are most likely affecting their personality, how they see things and that runs the risk of robbing Mundus of its next great mind before they're even born, genetic manipulation of this type could deprive Mundus of advancements in many fields, if regulated properly there is merit to it however.

Cloning is probably the most complex aspect of this because here questions of legal and moral nature combine, we're no longer talking about IVF we're now talking about taking a DNA sample from somewhere and making a genetic duplicate of that. Riviere Corporation's ambition in the cloning arena is nowhere near on the scale of Nugac Enhancement's, our focus is different and on a smaller scale what we're looking into is the cloning of human organs, hearts, livers, kidneys and so on with a view for use in organ transplant, the key difference here is that to all intents and purposes the heart is a pump, the kidneys are filters and the lungs are bellows or to put it another way they're component parts. So it begs the question, let's say I was cloned the clone looks like me, it has my DNA, but here's the thing it isn't me it's something else. Is a clone intelligent? Yes if what Nugac Enhancement are saying is understood correctly the clone would be intelligent as it would seem to have the ability to learn and understand new situations and cope with them, is a clone self aware? Presumably yes the awareness of their own ego would seem certainly able to develop at the very least. Does it have consciousness? If the answer be yes which appears probable to be the case given the articles in question, then we arrive at something significantly important that must be borne in mind moving forwards, to clone one human is an achievement of huge proportions it would probably win a Queen's Foundation Award, but when you get to cloning ten, a hundred, a thousand humans that has another implication, isn't that creating a race? And people will judge on how that race is treated."


From a spiritual point of view the High Priestess said "Today I wanted to learn about what cloning involved so as to form an opinion on it. This is a very bundled up situation to comment on, IVF is an accepted practice and as Namists there is no judgement there. Where there appears to be spiritual uncertainty is also where there is scientific uncertainty. We believe that all human life is individually unique, but if I'm cloned am I still unique because there's a genetic copy of me? We're grasping in the dark for an answer there. On top of that there's the question around whether cloning a human is playing God? But the truth appears to be that the spiritual opinion can only be informed by the scientific fact should the science advance to the point of this being achieved, when we have light in the dark we will be able to make decisions in full clarity. Both science and religion are on this journey together"



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Re: Achkaerin News Service
« Reply #185 on: January 09, 2022, 10:18:22 PM »


ORACLE LAUNCH'S


By Kimberly Thorn: Science and Technology Correspondent

The Achkaerin Space Agency has launched the Oracle Space Telescope. The Telescope, which will succeed the Theia Space Telescope, has successfully been deployed in Mundus orbit and will now make the journey to the Lagrange point, where it will deploy. Oracle will be capable of seeing a greater range of and further than any previous telescope of its type. Speaking following the launch Director of Flight Operations Nicola Fernley said "We're really happy that the launch has gone well but we're not out of the woods yet, the hardest part of Oracle's mission is getting the telescope into the correct position, once it's there then we can start peering out at the final frontier. We have quite the bucket list of things to see when we get that far as well."

As far as the Cross Straits operation on the SPETNAZ station goes Ms Fernley said "We don't have an Achkaerinese astronaut involved in this due to logistical constraints. Our involvement in this operation is focused on ground based liaising with our counterparts in Rokkenjima, Daito and Tytor as we seek to plan ahead the future of that station, hopefully beginning with renaming it."

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Re: Achkaerin News Service
« Reply #186 on: January 10, 2022, 06:15:06 PM »


SPECULA CLASS ENTERS TESTING


By Penny Noble: Defence Correspondent

McKinlay Naval Solutions have put the first Specula Class (pictured above) into testing, the class is intended to replace the Valiant Class and build on the capabilities of the Dragon Class. If testing proves successful the navy is expected to order four of the vessels. When asked for details on the Specula Class's capabilities a spokesperson for McKinlay Naval Solutions said "It is not company policy to comment on the specific capabilities of our products in public, however the foundation of this class is to retain the mission and capabilities of the Valiant class while also building in a defensive capacity that will ensure a greater level of protection from threats."

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Re: Achkaerin News Service
« Reply #187 on: January 16, 2022, 05:15:29 PM »


EMPEROR PETER ON KYNE SITUATION


By David Woods: Politics Correspondent

Traditionally the first Emperor's questions after the festive season is a more lighthearted affair, questions in previous years have included "Will the Emperor share what gift his granddaughter gave him for Life Day?" however this time there was a far more serious tone to the affair, the reason? Questions focused around the situation in the Kyne. The Emperor answered questions virtually for the first time, this being due to bad weather preventing him flying home from Gowu yesterday. When asked what he thought about the situation in the Kyne the Emperor said:

"It's a simple yet complex situation, we can't have signatory nations blatantly tearing up that which they have signed whenever it's convenient for them to do so. To advocate for that, to permit that is to undermine the integrity of international law. In terms of the question - do the Iwi breach the Fair Seas Concordat, the answer is unequivocally yes they do, why? Because the reason for the Iwi to board the vessel does not exist under the FSC, that's the legal issue at the root of this. But the incident happened in 2017 so quite why when there are far more concerning situations occurring on Mundus we have this escalation in the Kyne I don't know, I can understand Rokkenjima wanting to ensure compliance with the FSC and they have that right, just as any signatory does but this does feel like the wrong tool for the job. Now let's turn to the issue that motivates this behaviour - the Iwi seeking out those who committed crimes against them during the Seleucid occupation, this is the Iwi's right, they have a right to justice, they have a right to hold those that wronged them accountable whether in their courts or before the established CNN Tribunal. We're at a point where correct application of law is rightly or wrongly, real or perceived obstructing what is viewed as right. So rather than continue to escalate the situation and potentially revisit this situation should it happen again, perhaps we should take the alternative route. With this in mind we will be tabling an amendment to the FSC in the coming days that we hope will reassure Rokkenjima that they can stand Operation Typhoon down by removing the possibility of a repeat performance of the 2017 incident from the equation and also give the Iwi the ability to pursue Justice without breaching the document."
« Last Edit: January 16, 2022, 09:14:47 PM by Achkaerin »

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Re: Achkaerin News Service
« Reply #188 on: January 28, 2022, 07:54:29 PM »


ASA UNVEIL STARSHIP ENTERPRISE


By Kimberly Thorn: Science and Technology Correspondent

Almost four years into the Atlantis Program, the name attributed to their Nergal Program, the Achkaerin Space Agency has unveiled the design of the spacecraft that they intend to take humans to Nergal, the intended lander for the program is being tested out by their Daito counterparts. The spacecraft has been given the name Enterprise, likely a nod to the famed starship of an Achkaerinese television franchise, speaking about the Enterprise the ASA's Director of Flight Operations Nicola Fernley said "It's very weird to be talking about this, because to be at the point where we're actually talking about the spacecraft that we hope will take us there makes it real, we're not only talking in theory now we're talking reality. Enterprise will utilise all the lessons we've learned over the years as well as new ideas to take us there and if it works, maybe even further than that as the technology is developed, but we'll settle for Nergal for now. Of course we've got other work to do, preparatory missions, more testing, but we can walk and chew gum at the same time and with plenty of CSSEA help, which we're seeing from current missions by Rokkenjima and Daito, we're lining everything up now."

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Re: Achkaerin News Service
« Reply #189 on: January 29, 2022, 04:57:59 PM »


PRINCESS ASTRID IN HOSPITAL


By Niamh Roberts: Royal News Correspondent

Princess Astrid has been admitted to the Royal Valtheim Hospital. The five year old Princess was on a school trip to Valtheim Zoo when she displayed signs of being unwell and was taken to hospital. The Marble Palace has released a statement saying "Princess Astrid was admitted to hospital and has since been diagnosed with Meningitis, she is currently undergoing treatment for this and is expected to stay in hospital for a few days for observation purposes. The Royal Family extends it's most heartfelt thanks to the staff of the Royal Valtheim Hospital as well as the first aid staff at the zoo and the paramedics. At this time the Royal Family asks that people respect the privacy of the Princess."

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Re: Achkaerin News Service
« Reply #190 on: February 04, 2022, 07:25:57 PM »


PRINCESS ASTRID OUT OF HOSPITAL


By Niamh Roberts: Royal News Correspondent

Princess Astrid has been released from hospital, the Princess had been in hospital since being diagnosed with Meningitis and after undergoing treatment and a period of observation she's now continuing her recovery at home. The Princess did say "I'm feeling better and can't wait to get back to school. I'd like to thank everyone who sent get well soon cards." while her mother Crown Princess Serenity thanked the hospital staff for looking after the Princess.



AIR FORCE TO ORDER RAVEN


By Penny Noble: Defence Correspondent

Following an extensive testing program dating back to June last year, the Achkaerin Air Force has decided to place an order for the Raven aircraft to replace the Kestrel. The Raven is a STOL transport aircraft designed to fulfill the same role as the Kestrel and will continue to further develop the military's capability to operate in varying circumstances. A Spokesperson for the Air Force expressed their happiness with the test performance of the Raven but didn't elaborate on numbers or dates in terms of the order. In related news AADC have confirmed development of the Emolga (formerly known as the Jolt) remains ongoing while the Army has sent the Titan back to the developers with a list of required improvements for practical use however the concept was appreciated.

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Re: Achkaerin News Service
« Reply #191 on: February 06, 2022, 05:39:32 PM »


AADC SLAM LIES OVER RAVEN


By Penny Noble: Defence Correspondent

Following statements made about the Raven Sir Darren Eagle the CEO of AADC, the manufacturer that designed, developed and produces the aircraft has spoken in response to the statements and it's safe to say he is less than impressed with this new media outlet. Speaking in response he said "It's an outrageous accusation and one which I believe has been made purely for the purposes of attempting to score cheap political points instead they've scored an own goal. Short Take Off and Landing aircraft otherwise known as STOL aircraft are nothing new to Mundus they have been around since the 1930's that's getting close to a century since they were introduced and they've come in many guises both propshaft and jet propelled, they are today utilized by many military's on Mundus including but not limited to Achkaerin, East Moreland, Centralia, Safraen and Kermah, clearly the technology exists so quite what have we done wrong? Nothing instead we are accused by implication of misrepresentation when we have not done so. This is either incompetence in the research department in respect of Unite Vision, a mistake the likes of Free Mundus Network or even Gossip Daily wouldn't make, or this is deliberate malice, in either case it is a false statement in print and as such AADC will sue Unite Vision for libel unless a retraction and apology is published."



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Re: Achkaerin News Service
« Reply #192 on: February 11, 2022, 11:56:54 PM »


EMPEROR RESPONDS TO PARACAMBI CONCERNS


By Niamh Roberts: Royal News Correspondent

Emperor Peter has responded to concerns raised by Emperor Benson of Paracambi around events concerning Clysperis. The Emperor, who was attending a performance of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang the musical with his wife, was asked for his response prior to the performance and took the opportunity to give the response saying:

"First let's be clear Emperor Benson has every right to ask questions, and the questions he has asked are fair. I will however start not by answering a question he has asked but correcting his understanding around post war support provided to Clysperis, no financial aid or investment in Clysperis has taken place by Achkaerinese businesses or by the Government and I believe Emperor Benson will understand when I say the barrier to such support being provided was the continued possibility of people being placed into slavery and the continuing practice of indentured servitude, the extent of post war support was mainly in the form of medical supplies and medical aid, this being due to several hospitals having been seized and largely rendered inoperable by Confederacy forces as well as some manpower assistance carried out voluntarily by Achkaerinese forces, the count for that I believe at time of withdrawal stood at emergency work on seven schools, three hospitals, ten temples including the mosque in Apne and finally the market in Heshiken. Now while that would be classifiable as aid I wanted to be clear what specifically we were talking about when we define what aid Clysperis has received from our end.

Turning now to the list of concerns first that of sharing a common cause with slavers, when the Pharaoh wrote the letter requesting our support it was a very surprising moment for me, it was also equally surprising to the Tamoran ambassador judging off their initial reaction, and yes I did have my suspicions as to her motives something the Pharaoh will hopefully understand. However we were presented with a situation where without support there was a chance of a terrorist state forming on the Gulf of Safraen, that being something that we judged wasn't in our interests and given the closeness of the Tamora-Clysperis relationship at the time it was fairly safe to say that it wasn't in Tamora's interests either, so once we took the position that we didn't view a terrorist state as an acceptable outcome to the conflict we were by the law of unintended consequences in a position where ourselves and Tamora were going into this side by side, was I overjoyed at that prospect? No of course I wasn't after all I could see how it looked, an MCUR signatory and staunch anti-slavery nation on the same side of something as the nation that advocates for slavery is not a good look, but and I hope Emperor Benson will understand what I mean here, the issue of slavery was not the sole consideration in the calculation we had to make. It was apparent that regardless of what we did that Tamora was going to intervene and that brought with it a risk of its own, the prospect of in effect a Tamoran outpost on the Northern Ocean was not something we regarded as desirable but even accounting for all of this I had someone coming to me and asking for my help, and the decision wasn't an easy one to make we went all round the houses before myself and the Pharaoh even met, in the end we did what we believed was best in the circumstances we took the path that ensured the sovereignty of the legitimate Clysperi government and opened the door for further conversations later down the line, conversations we're now beginning to see the first fruits of - as people may be aware I recently had the opportunity to visit Clysperis, many things were talked about, many things happened and we've signed a treaty which the Senate will be debating and voting on in the next few days, this is without doubt the most heavily caveated treaty I have ever entered into, it makes a lot of commitments but each of these commitments is conditioned upon the removal of slavery from the statute book in Clysperis and a clear understanding that neither slavery or indentured servitude return, if they do then this partnership that the Pharaoh has spoken so much of would end and she is more than aware of that. Ultimately what we say with this treaty is "we're prepared to give you a chance but we're going to hold you to your word." Emperor Benson can be assured that we are going to do just that so when Pharoah Akasha says "All businesses will be required to comply with the Freestone Mark or they will be removed from Clysperis." we're going to make sure that's exactly what happens in practice and steps towards that have already been taken with the inclusion in our treaty of an independent office to monitor the situation in terms of slavery and indentured servitude within Clysperis and to submit an annual report to the Freestone Abolitionist Society. We've got a reputation as a nation for holding other nations to account and everyone can rest assured that will be the case with Clysperis.

Emperor Benson also asked about the prospect of POW's being taken as slaves during the Clysperi Civil War, the Pharaoh has I believe addressed this but I will reiterate that before any Achkaerinese forces were deployed we had in place an agreement that every military involved in combating the Confederacy was going to comply with the Uppsala Convention, the reasoning for doing that is for the situation Emperor Benson has laid out we did not want to see Clysperi or Tamoran forces using the conflict to practice the slave trade. Their agreement to comply was the assurance we had and some will raise eyebrows at a piece of paper being such an assurance, after all we all remember Verover going rogue in Safraen, but consider that Midaranye is a region where great stock is placed on a persons word and breaking your word is seen as a grave dishonour, we also made it known that there would be consequences if that word was broken - not least the withdrawal of our support and potentially others but also the clear likelihood of further intervention by others not yet committed, after all as much as we had the capability to fight the Confederacy as we were, if we had seen it morph from a counter terrorism situation into a counter slavery one I'm sure many more nations would have been stepping in on principle. Like Emperor Benson I want to see an end to the slave trade and I believe we will see it, I also believe that these reforms we're seeing in Clysperis represent a significant step towards that. If Emperor Benson has further concerns or wishes to discuss this I'm happy to meet him."


Following the performance the Emperor commented that he had "Enjoyed the show very much"



THE NEXT GENERATION OF BRITTAINE'S EYE WINTER GAMES SUCCESS


By Felicity Stewart: Sports Correspondent

People familiar with the summer version of the Mundus Games will perhaps have come across the name Becky Brittaine, Achkaerin's most decorated swimmer, she's treated the public to many fine races over the course of her career and now at this years Winter Games the first of her three children, Isabel Brittaine otherwise known as Izzy (pictured above) will make her Games debut aged 17, competing in three snowboarding events - the slopestyle, halfpipe and the aerials. Speaking about her prospects Izzy said "I'm looking forward to the Games, it's my first chance to compete, I'm going to try my best and we'll see what happens, maybe I do well, maybe I don't but I'll have a smile on my face when I come down these courses and if I stick the landings who knows what might happen."

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« Reply #193 on: February 14, 2022, 05:35:56 PM »


QUEEN SIORA TO REVIVE TRADITION


By Roisin Shaughnessy: Chief Correspondent

Queen Siora Qivalur of the Faejeon people is to revive the tradition of Royal Pilgrimage, the tradition historically saw the Faejeon monarch travel to each of the nineteen tribal settlements and get to know their people. Queen Siora will when she undertakes this become the first Faejeon monarch since 1698 to make the journey. The Queen has indicated there will be changes to it saying: "Historically this was a Faejeon tradition for the Faejeon people a chance for the Monarch to meet their people, today I have something of a dual status I am not only the Faejeon Queen but also the Marquesa of Awhaele so my responsibilities are broader, with that in mind I intend to not only travel to the nineteen tribal settlements but all the other villlages, towns and cities on the island as well. I will also visit the many memorials to those Faejeon who lost their lives at the whim of King Leonard I as well as being permitted to address the Awhaele Parliament on the subject of our future, thus we will honor the past, we will mark the past but we will also look to the future, a lot changed in the years between the execution of the last Faejeon King and my coming to the throne so now we see what we will see."

The presence of a chess set during the interview she gave also prompted a question about her interest in the game to which she said "I'm at best reasonably solid, I'm not some prodigy to whom it comes naturally, but I enjoy the game and I like learning about it, maybe one day I might try my luck at the Mundus Games, who knows?"

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« Reply #194 on: February 17, 2022, 08:51:15 PM »


CROWN PRINCESS TALKS SLAVERY WITH YOUTH ASSEMBLY


By Roisin Shaughnessy: Chief Correspondent

Crown Princess Serenity found herself responding to a press conference from Elysium during a meeting of the Achkaerin Youth Assembly, a body that operates much like the Senate, the Crown Princess who was attending to give her annual Q&A at the assembly was asked by one member what she made of Anginer's statement, following a short break while she consulted what had been said the Crown Princess returned and gave the following response:

"In answer to the question I find Mr Anginer's remarks offensive, unbecoming of someone in his position, ignorant and blinkered. It's frankly unbelievable that the Governor of Elysium does not understand the issue here. Let's look at the facts on the23rd of June 2019 Polakis Energy incorporated a subsidiary in Elysium, on the 1st of July 2019 Jalal Deer Agricultural Conglomerate incorporated in Elysium, on the 22nd of September 2019 Machal Mining incorporated a subsidiary in Elysium, you also have Tamora Imperial Bank incorporating its now infamous subsidiary in Elysium a few months later in 2020. Now look at these companies they all engage in the slave trade and they all have slaves on their books Tamora Imperial Bank has 30,000 slaves, Jalal Deer has almost 500,000 slaves, Polakis Energy has 20,000 slaves and Machal Mining has 20,000 slaves on its books. You get the picture these are businesses that because of their ties to the slave trade cannot do business outside of Tamora because of the sanctions placed upon Tamora by other nations, so then we consider why they choose to incorporate in Elysium? There's a very simple answer to that and it's very well put by first Polakis Energy who said "Conglomerate commercial law makes it easier to handle foreign operations", second by the Manist International Art Fund who cited the “hostile environment aboard” for Tamoran entities as the main reason for registering in Elysium." and then from an analyst on the Tamora Imperial Bank incorporation “Tamoran companies incorporate in Elysium when they need to deal with foreign partners outside of MidAranye and need to shield themselves from potential sanctions." this makes very clear what a lot of Mundus already suspects that Elysium represents nothing more than the equivalent of a criminal front and is used by Tamoran companies as a convenient means too dodge sanctions.

You may also have noticed that that list of dates I ran through earlier are all dates that fall after the April 2019 resolution of the Ardian Assembly, a resolution which Mr Anginer correctly says states "Nations of Ardia agree that they shall deny financial or material support to any Tamoran business that does not hold the Freestone Mark." Polakis Energy, Machal Mining, TIB and Jalal Deer all have slaves therefore they do not meet the criteria for the bronze level Freestone Mark so on that basis they shouldn't receive any financial or material support, yet they're allowed to incorporate in Elysium? The act of allowing that incorporation is material support which would put Heyra in breach of the resolution. This isn't about are there any slaves in Elysium, because if there were it would be known, it's about the potential money trail, these Tamoran companies do business through their subsidiaries, this means business is done outside Tamora but in such a way that the money and goods exchanged are avoiding scrutiny and ultimately likely end up going back across the border to Tamora where the central HQ's are, thus these companies benefit without any risk. if I were Mr Anginer or in fact anyone in the Heyran Government, a Government which has stated on numerous occasions that it opposes slavery this would greatly concern me, is it negligence? Corruption? Complicity? Why are we in this position? Why do we have a nation that opposes slavery actually hindering the fight against slavery? If Mr Anginer didn't know the numbers before today he certainly knows them now, it's time for him and for the Chairwoman to choose which side of this they want to be on, playing both sides won't cut it anymore, I suggest they think long and hard on what they wish to do and act accordingly."

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« Reply #195 on: February 25, 2022, 06:01:58 PM »


WINTER GAMES PREVIEW


By Nick Watson: Sports Correspondent

With the Winter Games opening ceremony having taken place in Keepton, it's that time where we take a closer look at the Achkaerinese athletes and try to estimate where the medals may come from. The first place to look will be on the ice sheets of the curling competition, Nina Dixon (pictured above) returns to the games leading a new look team, she's joined by Sally Carter, Wendy Portman, Sora Aozora and Lucy Young, the mens team is led by Gary Mount and he's joined by Daniel Snowden, Paul Hamilton, George McBride and Charlie Glass, in addition Mount and Carter will team up for the mixed curling. It is likely that curling will be one of the most heavily contested sports at the games with many familiar and new faces taking part. Elsewhere on the ice Achkaerinese medal hopes will most likely lie in figure skating where newly crowned national champion Georgie Scott makes her games debut, while on the snow the sporting prowess of the Brittaine family will be on show as Izzy Brittaine goes in the snowboarding, the Anscombe sibilings of Leah and Joe make returns to the games in the freestyle skiing and are joined by younger sister Niki. The Achkaerinese teams target for the games is fifteen medals.

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« Reply #196 on: March 01, 2022, 11:06:15 PM »


SENATE RATIFIES TREATY


By David Woods: Politics Correspondent

The Achkaerinese Senate has ratified the Achkaerin-Clysperis Treaty by an overwhelming margin, the final tally was 450 in favour, 20 against and 60 abstentions, leading the final days debate for the Government was Minister of Home Affairs Lizbeth Stewart (pictured above). The Minister opened the debate, answered questions, listened to Senator's contributions and then closing for the Government. Following the ratification the Minister addressed the chamber saying "Mr Speaker tonight we have ratified a treaty, this treaty is one that says the path Clysperis is on is recognised, it's one that welcomes them warmly as friends, but it is also one that is sensible, I have said it many times in the last few hours but I'll say it again the burden is on Clysperis to show us and the world that they mean what they say and this Treaty does that it gives Clysperis the support it needs but has safeguards in place should slavery and/or servitude rear their heads again. Tonight we have taken a leap of faith and we trust that it will not be misplaced."



TWO DAYS ONE MEDAL


By Nick Watson: Sports Correspondent

Two days into the Winter Games and Team Achkaerin have one silver medal, won by Harry Dawson in the Mens 12.5km pursuit event in the biathlon program. An unexpected medal but a personal best shooting performance kept Dawson in contention and as others faltered he was able to take advantage of penalties to get into silver medal position, there would be no catching the Nisavan athlete who took gold but he was more than happy to settle for silver. Also in action Achkaerin's mixed curling pair advanced to the semi finals of their competition with a 5-4 win against Lijiang.

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« Reply #197 on: March 07, 2022, 09:22:36 PM »


NEW STAFF AT THE PALACE


By Roisin Shaughnessy: Chief Correspondent

The Marble Palace has hired a new member of staff, Val Kirby (pictured above) has been hired as a sign language interpreter for Princess Astrid. In making the appointment the Marble Palace also confirmed that Princess Astrid has suffered, as a side effect of her recent Meningitis, hearing loss. Ms Kirby's responsibilities will include translating for Princess Astrid at home, school and other events and teaching the Royal Family sign language. Ms Kirby is a dance student at the Royal University of Music and will continue her studies while in the role.



OZZIES ROUNDUP


By Zoe Tate: Entertainment Correspondent

At the Ozzie's the Achkaerinese film industry enjoyed more success. Most notably the success of "Pole to Pole: Cycling Not as We Know It" the documentary following a team of women led by Sammy Lawson (pictured above) as they cycled the length of Mundus. Accepting the award Ms Lawson said "Well this is weird, we didn't expect to be nominated and we certainly didn't expect to win. I've got to thank those three girls who pedaled the distance with me Mel, Molly and Bridget, a big thank you to Eleanor Hendry for running the back up team and a shout out to Jemma Fox for producing the whole thing in a film format that I'm sure we'll watch when we're old and grey and reflect on how mad we were to do this."

As Jemma Fox was mentioned by Ms Lawson it should be noted that this is Fox's third Ozzie and each in a different category having previously won Best International Short Film and Best Animated Short Film.



ACHKAERIN STRIKE GOLD ON DAY FIVE


By Nick Watson: Sports Correspondent

Team Achkaerin have their first gold medals on day five of the Winter Games, the breakthrough moment came in the mixed curling as the pairing of Gary Mount and Sally Carter won the gold medal match beating Jugland 7-5, a tight affair in which the scores were level much of the way through, Carter made the decision to blank the ninth end to take the hammer into the last a decision that made the difference as they picked up two and won. The other gold medal won by Achkaerin came in the mixed biathlon relay, certainly a more surprising medal. Achkaerinese athletes will hope this is the start of a medal run.

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« Reply #198 on: March 10, 2022, 03:45:50 PM »


STRATOS GAMING MOVING FROM KHELP


By Maggie Clough: Business Correspondent

Stratos Gaming has announced that it's moving its base of operations from KHELP. The move, which comes about two and a half years after KHELP was launched is driven by an unexpected rise in demand for the company's products - Stratos Gaming produces tabletop games and various trading card games. The company's owner Thomas Hathaway (pictured above) commented on the move saying "I'll always be thankful for the start KHELP allowed us to have by providing an environment for small business's to take their first steps in. That we're now at this point shows the idea behind KHELP works and we'll see how things go from here." Mr Hathaway is due to give March's Steele Lecture.



BRITTAINE BRILLIANCE


By Nick Watson: Sports Correspondent

Izzy Brittaine has had a Winter Games debut to remember, the daughter of noted Achkaerinese swimmer Becky Brittaine took to the slopes on her snowboard and brought home three medals two silvers and a gold, good runs in the halfpipe and aerials saw her narrowly lose out to snowboarders from Cassiopeia and Djabidjan respectively but in the slopestyle she put clear distance between herself and the rest of the field. Speaking after her day she said "I'm not quite sure it's sunk in yet, I over rotated on the aerial jump and didn't quite get enough height on my last halfpipe trick, it's just irritating to know that maybe I could have got those golds as well, but you've got to put that behind you and go again and then the slopestyle was harder still, I was the last to go, so I'm there trying not to pay attention to what anyone else is doing and that last big jump I'm just hoping I can stick the landing because I really didn't want to be having three 'if only' conversations with my coach. But yeah I'm really happy right now."

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« Reply #199 on: March 20, 2022, 10:39:17 PM »


GOWU PREPARES FOR ANNUAL FASHION SHOW


By Amira Cotton: Gowu Correspondent

Preparations are well underway for the annual Gowu Fashion Show. The event one of the highlights of the year in the city sees designers from across Mundus, some experienced and renowned, some up ad comers and some new kids on the block come to Gowu and showcase their clothes, their jewelry and their accessories. Visiting the venue was Councillor for Home Affairs Aika Riiko who said "This is one of the most looked forward to events of the year and we're all getting excited about it, we're interested to see what the next big trend in Mundus fashion is." There was at time of reporting no confirmation of attendees beyond Black Rose and a few smaller fashion houses, though this was not regarded as surprising.



QUEEN OF SONGS TO WRITE SONG BOOK


By James Robson: Home Affairs Correspondent

Queen of Songs Phoebe Wolfe is to write a book titled "The Chorus of Life" which will include the words and history of many traditional Achkaerinese songs from many different areas the book could potentially become comparable in stature to the Book of Life and Rhythm of Life, the two sacred texts of the Namist faith, which could theoretically make it revered as the third sacred text. Speaking on her decision the Queen of Songs said: "I've never really understood why none of my many esteemed predecessors didn't do this, we're a bardic people much of our history is told through song whether it's how 'Flower of Aelmoor' tells of the deeds of Erin Ayanami during the crusades or how our national anthem is about the first ever Covenant Address given by Empress Djana, it's surprising no one's ever written a compilation of this sort, in my view it's long overdue so that we may pass our songs down and ensure they aren't forgotten."



SPACE AGENCY LAYS FOUNDATIONS


By Kimberly Thorn: Science and Technology Correspondent

The Achkaerin Space Agency has launched a new module for Pegasus Station, the module will in the words of Director of Flight Operations Nicola Fernley "Serve as our construction berth as we assemble Enterprise in orbit, it's one of our first steps as we line up our manned mission to Nergal, it's quite probable that Pegasus Station's operational role may expand to accommodate docking berths for ships like Enterprise, on top of this we're very eager to see the results of the Chimaera engine test next week and next month we'll be launching the first of two preparatory missions. We're on schedule and we're also looking beyond what we hope will be a historic mission at how we further explore Nergal and develop a blueprint for deeper space exploration. It's a very exciting time in our line of work and to be involved in what could be the most significant part of it is huge."



KIDS TAKE GOLD


By Nick Watson: Sports Correspondent

Gary Allen and Jacinda Darcy have won the pairs figure skating gold at the Winter Games. The pair aged 16 and 15 respectively were making their games debut and courtesy of a very dynamic, engaging and intimate routine stormed to the gold medal. Speaking afterwards Allen said he was "Lost for words" while Darcy described it as a "dream come true.", their success sees Team Achkaerin hit their pre Games target of fifteen medals, elsewhere on day eleven the Anscombe sisters picked up medals in the freestyle skiing with Leah winning a bronze in the slopestyle and Niki winning silver in the halfpipe.

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« Reply #200 on: March 23, 2022, 10:20:04 PM »


SCOTT'S STUNNING GOLD IN PODIUM SWEEP


By Nick Watson: Sports Correspondent

Fifteen year old Georgie Scott, on her winter games debut, has taken gold in the womens individual figure skating. Scott was joined on the podium by team mates Taylor Flyde and Hetty McNamara who took silver and bronze respectively, it was a tight contest with Flyde sitting in gold medal position for most of the competition and as it turned out setting a high standard that only Scott would beat and even then it wasn't close as Scott's routine saw her win comfortably. Elsewhere there was gold in the womens skeleton for Kelly Cowen and a bronze in the short track speed skating for the womens 3000m relay team.

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« Reply #201 on: April 03, 2022, 03:02:37 AM »


SENATE COMMENDS VALANCE AND CONDEMNS VIOLENCE


By David Woods: Political Correspondent

The Achkaerinese Senate has by unanimous vote passed a motion commending the statements made by Archbishop Valance in respect of present religious tensions and condemning the actions of the Iskaabin Aamin-ah militants. Consul Michael Williams introduced the motion saying: "Mr Speaker, the motion before the Chamber does three things, firstly it commends Archbishop Valance for what in simple terms could be described as speaking common sense, the manner in which he addresses the issue without stirring the pot and without asserting, whether actively or by implication, that the Deity he worships is superior. The second thing is a condemnation of the religious militant group in Djabidjan, their actions amount to terrorism and they should be treated as such. Third the motion declares our hope that, recognising the numerous times we've seen religious conflicts on Mundus and the associated death toll, leaders of faiths will take a step back, look at what has happened and choose their words more carefully in the future, no one wants another religious confrontation."

Of note is that the last time the Senate, outside of the Report rules, passed a unanimous motion was the passage of the Green Energy Transition Act in 2014.



AADC UNVEIL EMOLGA


By Penny Noble: Defence Correspondent

AADC have revealed their latest project, the Emolga, a light ground attack, support and trainer type aircraft. The aircraft's development is it was revealed a joint venture involving international partners though only Aperture from Revana has been rumoured at time of going to press, though domestically it has been confirmed that Riviere Corporation will be involved. No further details concerning the capabilities of the aircraft were revealed, but the general vibe of the press conference and mood of Air Force suggests there's a lot of excitement about this one.

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« Reply #202 on: April 10, 2022, 08:18:57 PM »


THE MOST SACRED OF WEEKS BEGINS


'Feather stroking' a practice associated with Rotorth the Griffin

By Roisin Shaughnessy: Chief Correspondent

The most sacred week of the Achkaerinese year has begun, across the nation people have been participating in street parties and celebrations as the Purification Festival begins, this being for the Ezoltlistic faiths[1] the celebration of the victory of the Goddess's Namis, over the warlord Ahkiy and his patron the Great Unspoken. The week's end traditionally sees the change of the Celestial year and this year will herald in the year of the dragon, other events occurring throughout the week will include numerous purification and blessing ceremonies at many temples, many performances of traditional song and dance, and on Renewal Day, the last day of the week, the handing over of guardianship from Yve the Phoenix to Fryseirth the Dragon, interest will also focus on the annual boat race between the universities of Artaxia and Freshwater and the Crown Cup Achkaerinese Football match, the latter set to feature the debut of Princess Renee. However this is not solely a week for the Ezoltistic faiths, it is also Holy Week beginning with Palm Sunday today and culminating in Easter Sunday next week, faith leaders across the nation have rejoiced in the celebrations.
 1. OOC - Cults of Namis, Supremacy and the Enlightenment

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« Reply #203 on: April 17, 2022, 06:55:24 PM »


NATION CELEBRATES RENEWAL DAY


By Roisin Shaughnessy: Chief Correspondent

Across Achkaerin citizens have celebrated Renewal Day, the day at the end of the Purification Festival where the new Celestial Year is welcomed in, this year the year of the dragon. High Priestess Alexis Minette, Oracle Temari Fuma and Queen of Songs Phoebe Wolfe led the nations celebrations from Luna Isle, while elsewhere the annual schedule of events saw the Royal Family begin their day in worship at the Temple of Namis, then welcoming the dragon's parade before heading to the banks of the river Seraphim to watch the annual boat races between the University of Artaxia and Freshwater University, both the mens and womens races were won by the University of Artaxia although Freshwater won both the reserve races, suggesting that next years races could be very very close. In the Crown Cup match the Crown's XVIII defeated the Invitational XVIII 17.5 (107) - 10.17 (77), the first time in ten years that the Crown's XVIII has won.

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« Reply #204 on: April 25, 2022, 07:39:24 PM »


SCRIVENS MEDICAL LAUNCHES ARTIFICIAL PANCREAS TRIAL


Harriet Lewis, one of the trial patients, holding her insulin pump

By Stephanie Deacon: Health Correspondent

Scrivens Medical is launching a trial an artificial pancreas that could reshape how diabetes is cared for. The trial, which will feature one thousand people with type one diabetes, involves a minor procedure to install a sensor under the skin that monitors the patients blood sugar (glucose) levels, the sensor then communicates via a closed loop system with a pump that calculates, based off of the sensor readings, how much insulin is required and then pumps it in. The readings and pump can be monitored from a smartphone or similar device which is used to input the amount of carbohydrates eaten at meal times, an important piece of information in this equation, the trial is expected to last for a few months after which the Achkaerin Medical and Pharmaceutical Executive (AMPE) will make a decision on whether to roll the treatment method out more widely, however medical professionals are already hailing the possibilities for this technology with one paediatric consultant calling it "a game changer that will greatly improve the patients quality of life. To actually be able to constantly monitor the blood sugar level and to see that they fall within the target range we set is very exciting." Of the thousand patients taking part in the trial 186 are children, a parent of one of the children said of her daughter "She loves days out with her friends and sleepovers, but we had to stop these as soon as she was diagnosed because other people couldn't manage her diabetes, but with this now we can let her go to these social occasions when we're not there."



Janelle Scrivens (pictured above), commented on the technology saying "This sounds like what you'd see on Star Trek or Doctor Who but this is very much reality, the technology and machines are very much part of our every day lives. This isn't a fully automated system, but it's very close and we're going to work on developing that, we could see a world where people with type one diabetes can go about their daily lives without having to worry about medication or glucose levels. A world where people aren't having to wake up in the middle of the night to do finger pricks and monitor their levels, where they can go to work or walk the dog without worry. The potential to dramatically transform patient quality of life for the better is huge, and all through one minor surgical procedure and a short time explaining how an app works and if a device is needed to run that app on we're providing that as well. Who knows maybe in years to come this technique can be used to monitor other conditions."


VIXENS GEAR UP FOR WORLD CUP


By Nick Watson: Sports Correspondent

With the Rugby World Cups approaching, Achkaerin's men's and women's teams have been warming up for their tournaments. The Men, world champions two years ago, are set to play a series of games against Seaforth in the build up while the women's team have been engaged in a tour of Marseilles and Aquitaine, in today's game against Marseilles they ran out victors by a score of 36-9. This year marks the inaugural women's world cup, with team captain and scrum half Lyra Silver (pictured above) saying "This is a bit of an unknown, we've played against all the big rugby nations on Mundus when it comes to the seven's format but this is the first time we've had a major international tournament where it's going to be fifteen aside, we're going to give it our best shot and we'll see what happens."

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« Reply #205 on: April 27, 2022, 04:49:44 PM »


DAWNBREAKER GOING FOR HAT TRICK


By Kimberly Thorn: Science and Technology Correspondent

Team Dawnbreaker, a group of students associated with Queen's College at the University of Artaxia, is to go for their third speed record, the team currently hold the records for the fastest solar powered land vehicle and the fastest human powered land vehicle, now they're chasing the speed record for an electric powered aircraft the record currently stands at 182 knots (337 km/h). Team Dawnbreaker's attempt will be done in an aircraft named "Electrobreaker" (engine bloc pictured above). Team leader Kit Davenport spoke about the project saying: "It's new territory for us, we're used to land record attempts so going for something in the skies is going to be fun."



SPECULA CLASS COMPLETES TESTING


By Penny Noble: Defence Correspondent

The Specula Class has completed testing the vessel, which is planned to succeed the Valiant Class, has completed several weeks of sea trials with no major faults recorded although as a spokesperson for McKinlay Naval Solutions said: "We've tried a lot of things with the Specula class, some have worked, some need a little bit of tweaking but this is certainly the most technologically advanced vessel of its type that we've produced." by comparison Minister of Defence Adam Sheppard said "The Specula Class has shown a solid performance in testing and we're looking forward to seeing its capabilities employed on the seas." It's understood that the Navy has ordered four of the vessels.

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« Reply #206 on: May 09, 2022, 07:43:24 PM »


EMPEROR PETER IN LODJA


By Roisin Shaughnessy: Chief Correspondent

Emperor Peter and his wife Duchess Renee have been visiting Lodja, the couple has spent time with Achkaerinese military personnel who were involved in putting an end to Leopold Hamsik's attempts to take control of the country, as the Emperor served in the navy prior to ascending the throne this was not surprising to see he is understood to have congratulated the personnel involved and was also involved in a memorial service for the thirteen Achkaerinese casualties of the battle. Related to this the INS Intrepid and most ships involved in the Achkaerinese effort in the Alucard during the crisis have been seen heading out of the area with just the INS Excalibur and INS Phoenix remaining while they undergo repairs. The Emperor and Duchess were then seen attending the coronation of Queen Natalya the third such coronation in a little over six years that the Emperor has attended. The Emperor spoke to the press later in the day saying: "For many years now we've had the honor of being able to call Lodja friend, a friendship we cemented in Queen Viktoriya's reign, a friendship we continued during Queen Klara's reign and one we will hope to see continue to grow during Queen Natalya's reign."



CHIMAERA ENGINE ACHIEVES MILESTONES


By Kimberly Thorn: Science and Technology Correspondent

The Chimaera Engine, unveiled three years ago, has undergone a successful series of tests, the engine which uses pre-coolers to reduce air temperature in a fraction of a second with the potential for faster speeds has completed a heat exchanger test simulating Mach 5 speeds as well as testing on sub scale air/hydrogen injectors for the preburners and a heat exchange module. This is a microtube heat exchanger that connects to the preburner and exchanges heat between combustion gas and helium. The advanced hydrogen preburner and heat exchanger together provide the heat source to the core engine to enable flight from sea level. As the aircraft accelerates, the heat energy converted in the engine intake and extracted through the precooler gradually takes over the energy provided by the preburner extracted through the heat exchanger. The recent testing campaigns, which were conducted by AADC and Riviere Corporation used full size test rigs to validate computer modelling and de-risk high temperature operation in advance of their further integration into the engine. The preburner test campaign also demonstrated that the fuel injection system would function at full scale, and that the heat output can be precisely controlled to provide even temperature to the heat exchanger. A spokesperson for the project said "We are very excited by the results we've got from this long period of testing and based on those results we are ready to move to the next stage of this technology's development."

In other science news the Achkaerin Space Agency has launched the Enterprise core module up to Pegasus station where assembly of the vessel will be taking place.

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« Reply #207 on: May 21, 2022, 02:59:37 PM »


CONCERN OVER INCREASE IN WEAPONS SMUGGLING


By Olivia Moore: International News Correspondent

Concern has been expressed following the seizure of illicit weapons aboard a freighter traveling through Achkaerinese waters, the haul which included according to firearms, ammunition and varying missile types was discovered during a routine training exercise. Arms trafficking is nothing new to Mundus and has been reported on many times, a spokesperson for the Navy said "We're investigating both the origin and destination of the shipment, the vessel flew a flag of convenience which is common practice in our experience of this problem, we think it probable that the shipment was destined for a current flashpoint on Mundus such as Centralia but that's speculation at this time, we will update when we know more."

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Re: Achkaerin News Service
« Reply #208 on: June 07, 2022, 04:32:07 PM »


HOPE CLASS TO BE UPGRADED


By Penny Noble: Defence Correspondent

For a good few years the Hope class of the Achkaerinese navy has provided early warning and search and rescue capabilities to Achkaerinese forces and those of its allies, perhaps most notably observed stationed outside Slava Lavosk's waters during that countries brief dabbling with nuclear weapons, now the Ministry of Defence has announced that "As part of what we are calling our fortress program we have decided to explore upgrades for the Hope class to take advantage of its substantial monitoring and tracking capability in ensuring the safety of our citizens and nation." such vague wording is par for the course when announcements such as this are made, however some analysts believe there is a strong likelihood that the Hope class upgrades will in some way integrate the Hope class into the Cerberus missile defence system, when asked for comment Deputy Sky Marshall Sophie Wall, Director of the MDI, said "We do not comment on the capabilities of Cerberus, nor do we speculate on potential expansions of the system."

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« Reply #209 on: June 08, 2022, 10:13:04 PM »


THE UNSUNG ACHKAERINESE HOBBY


By James Robson: Home Affairs Correspondent

"What are your hobbies and interests?" it's a fairly standard question on job applications, CV's have parts dedicated to this question sometimes, schools have clubs catering to a wide variety of interests and while pursuits like football, rugby, cycling, tennis, badminton, martial arts, chess, pool and snooker garner most of the attention, there's been a notable rise in the number of citizens listing tabletop games as an interest with favourites including games such as Dungeons and Dragons, Star Trek Adventures, Doctor Who, the Star Wars series and Journeys in Middle Earth. Today being international tabletop day[1] the hobby is far more prevalent, school classes spend the day enjoying playing a game for example. So what is it about a simple tabletop game that allows the format to stay somewhat popular in a world where computer gaming seems to dominate the market? Thomas Hathaway CEO of Stratos Gaming, the company that produces these games, commented on that earlier today saying: "I guess it's the creativity, these games are about more than just rolling dice, you get to create a character, you get to escape and not be yourself and play out ideas that you don't see elsewhere, the ability to mess with events in a well known series as well for example when playing a game in the Whoinverse you may play a game where the Time Lord's become the Weeping Angels, there's no limit on creativity, whereas in other games the rules place the limitations on how you can play." It was a significant day for Stratos Gaming for another reason as they released their newest tabletop game set in the Harry Potter world.
 1. OOC - I am backdating this to June 4th or failing that assuming June 8th is the Mundus equivalent
« Last Edit: June 08, 2022, 10:25:39 PM by Achkaerin »